The Bender Ninja Book 1: Chakra
by W.I.T.C.H.-and-Naruto-Gurl
Summary: When a tsunami traps the Gaang (except Aang) in ice for 1,500 years they awaken to find that their world has changed drastically. There are no more benders or avatar. Now the 7 of them must start over as ninja of the Hidden Leaf and keep the world balanced once again. But how did they survive so long in the ice? Did the world need them once again? Pure anime AU. Pic by BarnCatz
1. Prologue

Prologue

The tsunami was coming... they could feel it. In a small hot air balloon hovering above the island of Kyoshi, seven young warriors awaited in the basket to face the threat that, if not stopped, could sweep away all the life on the island and sink it below the sea.

The inhabitants of the balloon included Suki, the leader of the island's valiant Kyoshi Warriors, her boyfriend: Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe who would toss anything aside to assist the girl he loved, his sister, the master waterbender Katara, Fire Lord Zuko, head of the Fire Nation, who insisted on coming to help to redeem himself to the Kyoshi dwellers for his wrongs toward them in the past, Mai, the Fire Lord's girlfriend and, both hoped, eventual fiancé, Ty Lee, the graceful acrobat and Suki's second in command for the Kyoshi Warriors, and Toph Bei Fong, the 'greatest Earthbender in the world!' She claimed that the only reason she came along was because she needed some major action after the 100 Year War ended over half a year ago.

As the old Gaang looked off in the distance to see the hundred-foot wave coming towards the island at an alarming rate, they realized how dire the situation was. They weren't sure if they would be able to control a wave of that strength and height! The only person that probably had the slightest chance was their friend: Avatar Aang. Unfortunately, he was on a long journey to the Eastern Air Temple to investigate 'supposed' sightings of Air Nomads that survived Sozin's Comet over a hundred years ago. When news of the tsunami finally made it to the young avatar, he despaired knowing that he would never make it in time to stop it.

Being on the island for a small visit, that they managed to convince Mai to talk Zuko into taking a small break from his Fire Nation duties, the remaining Gaang didn't hesitate to spring into action to protect everyone! With Zuko piloting the balloon, Katara looking determinedly down at the water, knowing it was up to her to stop the killer wave.

"Katara!" shouted Zuko as he threw another flame into the 'engine' of the balloon to keep them aloft, "Are sure you can handle this?!"

"Of course she can Sparky!" exclaimed Toph, obviously annoyed the Fire Lord doubted the waterbender's abilities, 'And besides if Sugar Queen here can take down that psycho you call a sister, then she can totally take on a giant wave! How hard can it be?"

The rest of the Gaang looked at the Blind Bandit like she was insane. Taking down Azula _had_ been quite an accomplishment, but compared to a hundred foot or so tsunami, Azula looked like a harmless catdeer!

"Toph this serious! If Katara can't take apart the wave, tons of people are going to die!" Suki scolded the Bei Fong heiress severely. Her own homeland could wipe off the face of the Earth for crying out loud!

"I know it's serious Face Paint! Can't you tell I'm worried too?!"

"Uh... no I can-"

"Would you two stop acting like a couple of angry Polar Bear Dogs!" shouted Sokka suddenly, startling the two girls. It had been a while since they had seen Sokka yell like that.

"All three of you need to knock it off!" shouted Mai moments later, "Katara probably can't concentrate with all four of us fooling around in here!"

Katara gave Mai a look that said 'Thanks' she turned to Zuko, "Zuko get us closer to the water!"

Surprised by this sudden order, the Fire Lord glanced at her as if to ask 'Are you sure?' before he saw the look on the waterbender's face, as she stared at the full moon. Nodding, Zuko shrunk the fire until the Gaang was right over the wave.

"Yue, please help us!" Sokka called to his ex-girlfriend in the sky. Katara smiled at her brother's determination too, trying to ask for assistance as the wave came within fifty feet of the balloon.

"You can do this Katara!" Ty Lee encouraged in her usual bubbly attitude.

"Alright," breathed Katara as she felt the moon's power invigorating her as if it were an answer to Sokka's prayer, "here we go!"

As the wave neared, Katara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the energy of the full moon's light fill her. Her eyes snapped open and brought her arm down into an arm chop. The wave lurched as part of it was knocked away from the rest of it, causing it to lose some power. More arm movements followed, causing more water to be sent away from the rest, making the wave smaller and smaller. Katara brought her hands up and made another wave that crashed into the now smaller wave. As both waves met, they sent a tower of water skyward, soaking the hot air balloon and the seven passengers.

"Katara! You did it!" cheered Sokka and Ty Lee simultaneously as they did a small victory dance in the minimum space provided in the basket. Toph shot her fist into the air in victory, and Zuko smiled proudly in relief. Even the corners of Mai's mouth turned upward slightly.

Katara was breathing hard, she sat down, closed her eyes, and looked ready to pass out. "I don't want to do that again."

"Are you okay?" asked Suki.

Katara nodded and said, "Just need to rest, I don't think I can waterbend anymore right now."

"Don't worry, you can rest on the island Sugar Queen!" said Toph encouragingly, "Sparky! Get us to shore!"

"I don't think I can!" Zuko suddenly shouted in a panic as he tried to light a fire under the now soaked balloon. It took a split second longer for the remainder of the Gaang to see the problem. The water from the two colliding waves had completely soaked the balloon in such a way that the wood was now too wet to burn anymore! As a result the balloon started to plummet toward the ocean, the seven teens in tow!

"Hold on!" shouted Sokka as the wind whipped against his face. Within the chaos Toph was able to crawl her way to Katara and tried to shake her awake to save them.

Succeeding, Katara saw that she and her friends were zooming toward the water. Sokka was holding Suki while Zuko held Mai and Toph and Ty Lee struggled to hang on to the remaining metal railing. Acting on reflex, Katara quickly protected herself and her friends by encasing them in an ice dome, but she was so tired she did not have time to think and in her haste she accidentally froze the inside solid as well!

The next morning, as the sun rose in the sky, the hot air balloon was gone, with not even a single speck of debris floating on the water, and the seven warriors were never seen again.


	2. Episode 1: Discovery

Episode 1: Discovery

Naruto Uzumaki sat deep in thought by a river, overlooking a gorgeous waterfall. It was the day after he had become a genin where he saved his teacher, Iruka Umino, by defeating a ninja named Mizuki. Recently discovering he was the Nine-tails jinchuriki hit the young blonde pretty hard. He now realized why all the people of the village seemed to look at him like he wasn't human, but a freak that belonged in a cage! It had all become clear to him. If it weren't for Iruka's words of encouragement and comfort after the confrontation, who knew what would have happened?

Naruto was shaken from his thoughts as said Academy instructor appeared beside him. "Hey, Naruto. You okay?"

"Just thinking Iruka Sensei," sighed the blonde, "I guess I'm just nervous about tomorrow. I'll be with a new squad, new teacher, and you won't be around as often to help me out of hairy situations."

"Don't worry about it Naruto," Iruka said, ruffling his hair, "I was nervous when I met my genin squad for the first time too, but as you can see, everything worked out fine. The same will happen for you too. And if all else fails just do your best! So, cheer up!"

With a smile Naruto nodded, "Thanks Iruka Sensei."

"Alright, now how about we grab some ramen from Ichiraku's, my treat!"

Naruto jumped up cheering, but slipped and fell into the water below. Luckily the waterfall was only about two stories high so he wasn't hurt. As he climbed to the shore mumbling grumpily he noticed a small opening behind it and his bad mood vanished.

"Hey, Iruka Sensei there's cave behind here! I'm going to go check it out!" he called up before climbing out of the water and cautiously going inside. Iruka jumped after Naruto to make sure he didn't get hurt or do anything reckless like cause a cave in.

Inside the hidden cave, it was brighter than they thought it would be. A tunnel led them deeper into the hillside and seemed to get wider the further they got. As they continued down, the duo spotted white or bluish crystals that seemed to be made of ice and frost. At one point it got so dark that Iruka had to pull out a glow stick to see around them. They also noticed that the further they got, the colder it seemed to get as well.

When they finally reached the end of the passageway, the duo stopped, their mouths agape. What was in front of them was a giant ball of ice, probably bigger than the size of the Hokage building!

"What is this?" asked Naruto, seeing his breath in the air.

"I'm not sure." admitted Iruka as he shined the glow stick over the perfectly round ice sphere. As the light passed through the ice, Naruto suddenly spotted a human, no, several human shapes inside it!

"There's people in there!" exclaimed Naruto as he immediately brandished a kunai and started hacking away at the icy prison.

"Naruto, move aside!" ordered Iruka as he took out a small tanto that he carried in his chunin vest. Obeying his teacher, Iruka brought the sword down in several fierce slices. After the tenth hack the sphere created a large crack and a blast of icy air was blown out of it, hitting the chunin and genin in the face. The crack continued across the rest of the icy surface before collapsing and spewing out seven people, no, teenagers, onto the cave floor. There were two boys and five girls.

One of the boys had messy brown hair and light skin and was wearing a full body maroon jacket with a gold belt and hem over a loose red shirt and pants, and ankle boots with a golden vertical stripe on each. His most noticeable feature however was a huge red scar that he had on and around his left eye.

On top of him was a girl with very pale skin, black hair tied in two buns, bangs that hung above her eyes, and two long ponytails. She was wearing a red flowing shirt and pants with hooked boots, underneath a maroon full body petticoat with a white hem for the collar of it, with fingerless black gloves.

The other boy had olive skin, dark brown hair tied up in a small ponytail and was wearing a blue shirt that reached to his knees and had light blue hemming and belt, dark blue pants, and knee high boots. He also had blue fingerless gloves with white bandages around the wrists and forearms. He even had what appeared to be a white bone choker around his neck.

On top of the blue clad boy was one of the girls who had auburn shoulder length hair and was dressed in a heavily armored green kimono and even had white face paint with red eye shadow and lips. She had a katana strapped to her side, a shield on her back that had a yellow circle with a dot in the middle of it, and two fans on her belt.

The girl next to them was wearing the same face paint and green clad armor and outfit as the auburn girl only her face was more round with larger eyes, and her hair was brown and tied in a high braided ponytail where the back scooped toward the top again with two poofy bangs on the sides of her face. She was also wearing gloves, unlike the first girl. She had the same weapons as her counterpart as well.

Another girl had light skin; black hair tied up in a bob with bangs framing her face, in her hair was a green headband with white pompoms on the sides. She was wearing a short-sleeved yellow dress over another longer green one with a brown studded belt and brown and green armbands and leg bands. She was the only one barefoot out of all of them.

The final girl had olive skin like the second boy's and the same hair color tied in a bun, long braid, and two loops in her hair. She was wearing a long blue dress with white fur on the bottom hem and a white belt and collar, over dark blue, white furred pants and a long sleeved blue shirt with wide dark blue hems, and grey closed toed shoes. Around her neck was a dark blue choker with a carved piece of light blue rock that looked like crashing waves.

Naruto immediately ran to the nearest one, the girl in blue, and quickly checked for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found one. The girl groaned and slowly opened her blue eyes. She stared at Naruto in confusion before trying to sit up.

"Miss you shouldn't try sitting up yet!" Iruka exclaimed as he draped the scarred boy's arm over his shoulder as he too regained consciousness along with other five teens, "We don't know long you and your companions were frozen in that iceberg!" Turning to Naruto he said, "Naruto, let's go!"

The blonde nodded and made five shadow clones to support the other teens; carrying the two black haired and braided girls and supporting the blue clothed boy and auburn haired girl on the shoulders.

"Wh-where are you taking us?" asked the blue boy weakly to Naruto as they exited the cave.

"The hospital first, then we'll take you to old man Hokage after you recover."

"Who?" asked the green black haired girl, as she opened her pale eyes. Wait, was she blind?

"The leader of our village, the most powerful ninja here." Iruka explained before he, Naruto, and the clones sprung toward the trees and took off toward the hospital.

o~o

First official chapter. What is to become of the members of the Gaang now? Read to find out!


	3. Episode 2: Frozen for HOW LONG?

Episode 2: Frozen for HOW LONG!?

"You found these adolescents in what?!" exclaimed Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, after hearing Iruka and Naruto's tale. They had just finished explaining what had happened in the cave where they had found the seven strangers. Hiruzen was mildly surprised at this discovery and knew that this would certainly be a tale to tell in the future.

"In a ball of ice in a hidden cave behind the Nazo Waterfall sir." Iruka repeated, "From the state the ice was in, I wouldn't be surprised if they had been trapped in there for years!"

"Right after we got them out, we took them right to the hospital." Naruto finished explaining, "Who knows what would have happened to them if we didn't find them!"

The Hokage took a moment to completely process the information for exhaling, "I'm assuming that you at least learned these strangers' names?"

Iruka nodded, "We did sir. They're called Toph Bei Fong, Zuko, Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Sokka, and Katara. That's all that we were able to get out of them before the hospital staff took over."

"I see..."

"Old man, do you know where they may be from?" asked Naruto.

"...I may have an idea of where..." he said the word hesitantly, before rising from his chair, "But I won't be 100% certain until I've seen these visitors for myself. Iruka, Naruto, come with me! I will go to see these young ones personally."

o~o

"Amazing," muttered one of the medical ninja, Hosho, as he examined Suki, "for being trapped inside that huge iceberg, besides slight dehydration, you all seem in perfect condition." Turning to Toph and Zuko he asked, "That is, if you were blind and had that scar prior to your imprisonment?" He received nods from both Zuko and Toph.

"Well then, we'll just file these and you'll all be cleared to leave the hospital by this afternoon or tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest." said another medical ninja named Mitate.

"Thank you for your hospitality sir," Zuko thanked as he bowed his head from his bed, "But if you don't mind us asking... Where exactly are we?"

"Yeah," added Toph, "as those guys dropped us off here, I couldn't feel anything familiar about the surrounding area."

"You're in the Hidden Leaf Village, located in the Land of Fire if you must know." Mitate answered as he wrote something on a clipboard.

"The Fire Nation?" asked a shocked Sokka, "Wow! That iceberg carried us pretty far wouldn't you say?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth Sokka," agreed Ty Lee.

"Sokka, Ty Lee," Suki said an annoyed tone, "the Fire Nation is an island country. If we were carried there, we should be somewhere by the sea, not in a cave underneath a waterfall!"

Sokka eyes widened at this realization, "You... make a good point there Suki!"

"Fire Nation?" questioned Hosho with a raised eyebrow, "No, this is the _Land of Fire_, we've never heard of this Fire _Nation_."

This remark caused all of the teens in the hospital room to give expressions of surprise and fear. If this village had never heard of the Fire Nation before, how remote was this village? And now that they all thought about it, they themselves had never heard of a 'Hidden Leaf Village' before they were frozen, and Aang never told them about it either.

"Oh well... Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee are from the Fire Nation's capitol: Capitol City, Toph is from an Earth Kingdom town called Gaoling, Suki is from an island off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom called Kyoshi Island, and my brother Sokka and I are from the Southern Water Tribe at the South Pole." Katara explained, trying to elaborate for the medical ninja.

"The South Pole?" asked Mitate, as he looked at the blue teenage and raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Yeah, you know, big land mass at the bottom of the planet that's covered in snow and ice year round and we only see the sun for about half the year?" Ty Lee said, trying to explain their home to the medics.

The medics were about to explain to the seven teens that they haven't heard of people living in the South Pole until a new voice beat them to it. "There has not been any inhabitants of the South or North Pole for a very long time young lady. Nor have there been any Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom for just as long, perhaps longer."

Turning toward the voice's source, the teens saw not only the man and boy who saved their lives, but also a dark-skinned man of below-average stature with grey spiked hair with a small goatee as well. He had pronounced cheekbones, a few wrinkles, a wart near his left nostril, and a few liver-spots. He was wearing a red, full-length kimono that was tied using a white sash.

"Who are-" Suki's question was answered shortly when Hosho and Mitate bowed to the man at the room's entrance.

"Lord Third," they both muttered.

"Wait, _you're_ the Third Hokage?" asked Mai in slight disbelief as the remaining Team Avatar member's eyes widened when they finally laid eyes on the leader of the village. When they were told he was the most powerful ninja in the village, they expected someone tall with very buff muscles like the Boulder, or someone intimidating like Fire Lord Ozai, not a short old man.

"Indeed I am," he replied with a smile that reminded most of the gang of Zuko's Uncle Iroh, "I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, head of the Hidden Leaf. But enough about me, you must tell me, how did you get in your icy prison?"

The Gaang took turns explaining about the tsunami and Katara using her waterbending to stop it and trapping them all by mistake. The Third paid most attention to the part about the waterbending. "I might have an idea of where you are from, or should I say,_ when_ you are from."

The Gaang blinked, now they were even more nervous about what was happening. Sokka's eyes widened the most and he shot straight up in his bed.

"WHEN we are from?!" he asked, rather freaked out.

"You were frozen for a long time, there aren't any benders anymore, hasn't been any for over a thousand years."

"What?" asked Toph in disbelief, "What happened to them? And what do you mean by 'a thousand years'?

"The benders died out mysteriously several centuries ago. Very few people now a days know about them, however it is believed that the cornerstone of elemental ninjutsu came from the benders. Now tell me, were there any large events that happened prior to your frozen hibernation?"

All the teens were speechless, with Sokka still in his freaked out position. They couldn't believe that they possibly could've survived that long in the ice. Sure Aang did, but that was only for about 100 years give or take. Plus he was in the Avatar State the whole time he was in there! They were supposedly frozen for over a millennium.

In a quiet voice, Katara answered, "The war... The war with the Fire Nation that lasted for over a 100 years."

"Yeah, the tsunami came about 6 months after it ended." Suki finished.

The Hokage bowed his head and sadly sighed, "Yes, in all of our history, nothing saddens me more than that conflict. Even though we are no longer the 'Fire Nation', nothing can change the past. From what you've told me, I can only assume the seven of you were frozen for about 1,500 years."

All the teens were speechless once again while Sokka, once again, flipped out, "Frozen for _HOW LONG_!?" After that, Sokka's head flopped back on his pillow from shock.

"Okay," Toph said, coming out of shock first, "you still didn't answer my question though. What happened to the benders? What happened to our world?"

Sarutobi began retelling history, "As I said, the Fire Nation became the Land of Fire and the Fire Lord became the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. He rules the land as a whole, while I rule this ninja village and the ninja to protect this land. There are also smaller lands that may or may not have any ninja villages. However, there are five main lands, for each of the elements."

"Wait," Zuko interrupted, "Five elements?"

"Yes I said five, while there were four in your time, fire, water, air, and earth, we have fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning."

"Lightning?" asked Mai, "How did lightning become an element?"

"Shortly after the Hundred Year War ended, a small faction of firebenders who could manipulate lightning split off from the Fire Nation, and became the Republic of Lightning. Unfortunately, the Fire Nation was determined to keep its nation as one and a civil war started that lasted for about five years with the Lightning Republic winning and finally earning recognition as a separate nation."

"...Another war huh?" Zuko queried staring at the floor in shame.

"Eventually, the Fire Nation became the Land of Fire, the Air Nomads, after repopulating that is, became the Land of Wind, the Water Tribes joined together and became the Land of Water, the Earth Kingdom became the Land of Earth, and the Lightning Republic became the Land of Lightning. Each land has its own Daimyo and its own ninja village. Now none of us can bend the elements to our will like the benders did, but we can use the elements as attacks. Now each ninja has his or her own element, for example my main one is earth. That does not mean I can only use earth jutsu no. It means that it is easier to learn earth jutsu than any other element. In fact I know many jutsu of each element."

"Are you serious?" asked Sokka, who had gotten over his shock and was sitting up in bed.

"He's serious alright." verified Toph, "I can tell he's telling the truth, his heartbeat hasn't changed one bit!"

Seeing that Toph believed the old Hokage, the rest of the Gaang believed him too, even though it was hard to swallow that people besides the Avatar could control all the elements to an extent.

"Very well, enough of history, my question for all of you now is now what will you do?" asked the Third to the entire group. He knew that whatever answer they gave, whether together or separately, would determine their fate of either leaving or remaining in the village.

The remainder of Team Avatar stared at each other as a huge and painful realization came crashing down on them. They were the only remaining ones of their people left. Their families, friends, and, as far as they knew, the Avatar were all gone, lost to the mists of time. They had nowhere else to go. There really wasn't much of a choice when they thought about it. They all nodded to each other, each making the same decision.

"We'll stay, as far as we know, we don't have anywhere else to go anyway." answered Zuko forlornly as he thought of his uncle Iroh, his mother Ursa, and the rest of the people he cared about from the old Fire Nation as a small and sad tear trickled down his face.

The Hokage nodded in understanding before turning to Iruka and asked him to retrieve something for him. With swift nod the brown haired man left and returned a few minutes later carrying seven headbands with a metal plate with a leaf insignia in the middle, much like Naruto's and his own, and gave one to each of the teens.

"Them let the three us be the first to say: Welcome to the village!" exclaimed Hiruzen with a kind smile, "From now on, the seven of you will be ninja of the Hidden Leaf. May you create new bonds and help them grow as you do. May the Will of Fire burn strong in you from now on and forever."

After his speech of welcome that brought comfort to the group, they each took their headband and put them on proudly. Suki tied hers around her waist like a belt, Katara put hers around her neck, but low enough to still show her mother's necklace, Toph, with a little help from Katara, replaced the Earth Kingdom headband she wore with her new Leaf Village headband, Sokka and Ty Lee tied theirs around their foreheads like Naruto's and Iruka's, and Zuko and Mai tied theirs around their arms. Mai's was on the left and Zuko's was on right.

"Not to sound rude," said Mai as she finished tying hers, "but why do we need to wear these?"

Iruka answered saying, "These forehead protectors are meant to symbolize pride for one's village, and it's also a symbol of fealty. We ninja consider it an honorable, important part of our tradition, and make a point of wearing it at all times while we're on duty. Though, there are some ninja who don't wear them for personal reasons who are still as loyal as one who does wear it. Some even wear them under their clothes." Nodding, Mai shrugged and figured she was just going to have to get used to it.

"Now, as Mitate and Hosho said before, I believe you are cleared to leave the hospital at any time." Turning to Naruto and Iruka, "Iruka, Naruto, I'm assigning you the tasks of being our newest residents' guides for the day. Help them get familiar with the village and its people if you can. As for their living quarters, I believe that there are a few apartments up for rent where you live, isn't there Naruto?" He received a vigorous nod from the hyperactive blonde. "Very well, you may take them there when you are done for the day." Turning back to the teens, "I wish you all good luck, and once again, welcome to the village." With that the Hokage bowed and left the room, leaving the remaining Team Avatar, Iruka, and Naruto to themselves.

o~o

Hope you like it so far!

Gaang: R &amp; R please!


	4. Episode 3: SHOPPING!

Episode 3: SHOPPING!

Just as the Hokage predicted, the remaining members of Team Avatar were permitted to leave the hospital about a half hour after his speech to them. While they waited for the medical ninja to give their okay to leave, Iruka started a stripped-down lecture on the basics of ninja training. He, with a little help from Naruto here and there, explained what chakra was and how it functioned, which the seven soon realized was very similar to chi energy of their time and it worked in a very similar way. The energy (whether it was called chi or chakra) was first gathered in the body. The way to perform ninjutsu using this chakra then focused on a combination of certain hand seals.

There were over a dozen different hand seals, which they soon discovered was the trickiest part to learn, however Iruka was surprisingly very patient, guiding them all through the tricky gestures, correcting the slightest mistakes, and quizzing them at random points of the lecture to make sure they were committed to memory. He also made them promise to practice the seals at least once a day.

They then learned the different jutsus or techniques of ninja training: taijutsu, genjutsu, ninjutsu, bukijutsu or weapon techniques, the dangers of forbidden techniques or kinjutsu, and many more. As the lecture went on, Team Avatar's understanding of the village's relationship with the citizens and other villages became clearer, since it was very similar to the way things ran in their day. They were to follow the rules and regulations of the village like obeying their sensei, honor other high-ranking ninja, or shinobi as they were called in the villages, and ultimately obey and answer to the Hokage himself.

After they were finally permitted to leave the hospital, Iruka explained that today they would go to obtain clothes and ninja gear appropriate for beginners and meet the rest of the new genin tomorrow at the academy. The others, they were told quietly by Iruka, did not yet know who their teammates or who their jonin-sensei would be, not even Naruto. Iruka himself promised to introduce them to the new genin, but assured them that they would not be pestered much over who they were and where they had come from, since all the students were far too excited about having graduated.

Eager to start their new life and probably greatest adventure ever, Team Avatar followed Iruka and Naruto out of the hospital and into the streets of the Hidden Leaf.

o~o

And so it was that Team Avatar began following Iruka and Naruto down the main street of the Leaf, which twisted oddly. Iruka explained as they walked that the village's layout was specifically designed to confuse invaders. Naruto joked that even civilians sometimes got lost, though shinobi would be able to just hop up to the rooftops if they needed to get their bearings.

"Iruka Sensei," Katara said, picking up on the world's new dialects fairly quickly, "are you sure you don't mind buying us all the things we need?"

"Not at all Katara," Iruka reassured the waterbender, "We're pretty much shopping on the Hokage's orders anyway, so it's no big deal."

They passed a couple shops, some that seemed to be tailors, but as they passed they noticed the owners give the group, particularly Naruto, hateful stares which Iruka returned with a few doses of killing intent, and put a protective arm over the blonde. Did these people not like him for some reason?

Finally, after walking to almost the end of the village, they found a tailor shop that looked brand new. To emphasize, there was a huge colorful banner above the entranceway.

"What's the occasion?" asked Suki, as they went inside.

"Why it's my grand opening young lady!" said a stout, slightly chubby man from behind the counter as he came around to greet them, "I am Arashi, of the Land of Mountain Streams and I would love to welcome you to my humble shop!"

"Congratulations!" Iruka said with a bow that the eight genin mimicked, "Alright, I have seven newly-minted genin who need new uniforms and perhaps even some civilian wear would be nice as well. Only the finest materials; let's say… three uniforms each, to start. Consult with each of them for civilian wear. Price is no object for these seven, just give me the bill and I'll handle it."

"Right away!" bowed Arashi before swiftly leading them to the other end and shop and toward some footstools. After measuring each of them Arashi began altering materials to fit them, starting with Sokka. First came underclothes, the tailor said, speaking for all of their benefit and not looking at Katara, Mai, Ty Lee, Toph, and Suki, who had their own preferences.

Then came trousers and shirts, the latter of which usually had a high collar, he said. Sokka requested his to be a low collar with sleeves that only went to his forearm. Many shinobi also wore mesh armor to cover their vitals, the tailor continued, which was like a sleeveless shirt made of light, flexible metal mesh, which Sokka allowed to wear past his wrists. After that it was the jacket. No, not the flak jacket that Iruka wore like many others when they reached the rank of Chunin or higher, but still made from tough material. Sokka's was altered to end right above his elbow. Two more outfits were then made identical to the one Sokka was wearing now, mostly consisting of different shades of blue like his old outfit from 1,500 years ago.

He was also equipped with several thick leather belts, two sets of metal-backed fingerless gloves which looked black but were actually a dark blue like his old ones, and several pairs of shoes, including slippers, odd navy-colored sandals which left the toes bare, and sturdy climbing boots. It was the sandals he would wear most often, Iruka had told them, with Naruto motioning to their own feet. Nodding, Sokka slipped the odd, yet surprisingly comfortable, shoes on.

To finish it off, Sokka re-tied his Leaf headband around his forehead. He then turned and gazed at himself in the mirror and saw... not Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, but a new genin of the Hidden Leaf Village, clad in complementary shades of navy and dusty blue.

Zuko's outfitting was similar, but had asked for his shirt to be in a maroon red and with only the sleeve on his right arm down to his wrist. His neckline was higher than Sokka's too. His bare arm he had in mesh armor for protection, as well as some under his long pants, also a maroon. He also got a V-necked black jacket that had no sleeves to protect his upper self more.

Katara's uniform was the same color as her brother's only her sleeves were so long that they completely covered her hands and fingers. She had mesh armor reaching just down to above her knees and also covered her exposed stomach. She also added metal plating to her forearms. She was wearing a skirt that reached slightly past the mesh with a white hemming that was identical to the jacket, which was vest like with no sleeves, but still allowed her midriff to show.

Mai's new uniform was one of the few that resembled her old clothes, still consisting of shades of maroon and red, however, this time she asked for her sleeves to be completely taken off, leaving her arms exposed. To make up for the bareness of her arms she received some fingerless armbands that went to her elbows that had red metal plating around the elbows. She kept her maroon petticoat, but had it hemmed so that it only reached her thighs, and her red pants still remained loose and long.

Suki's look was very similar to the old Kyoshi Warrior uniform she wore long ago, as it was in various shades of green with some cream on her armored jacket. Her long green dress was ancient history as she now sported forest green shorts and a flared, long sleeved shirt that was a pistachio green with metal plates along the upper sleeves near her shoulder and near the hem as some of the shirt flowed down past her vest slightly.

Toph's new outfit was the closest one to her original outfit, still consisting of an outer dusty yellow knee length dress and green under clothes, only they weren't as loose as they used to be and pressed against her legs and arms. Her sleeves went to her hands like Katara's only her fingers were showing and also had plating on her forearm and hand like the Waterbender. She still had her favorite brown belt, but had positioned it so it was more diagonal than horizontal. The Blind Bandit kept her leg bands and insisted that she didn't need, or want, shoes because then she wouldn't be able to see as well via the earth.

Finally, Ty Lee's look consisted of black pants that reached to her ankles and were tied with a dark pink sash that she was using as a belt. Her red shirt had a tank top look that exposed only a sliver her midriff unlike Katara's but no mesh armor was present. She got black armored gloves that stopped just below her elbow and a black armband on her upper left arm that had the red swirled symbol that Iruka had on his flak jacket in the middle. As an extra accessory, she was also given a red and black choker with a single red swirl symbol in the middle.

It took a little over an hour, but they all soon left wearing their very first shinobi-in-training uniforms, and feeling rather good about them. They also got cloaks, basics shirts and pants to wear when off duty, and some oddly cut robes that Arashi told them were called kimonos, which were usually worn on very special occasions. The girls were given several extra ones, which were a little less fancy and appropriate to wear casually.

After the bills were carefully counted, and the total was presented, Iruka nodded and paid. He then (while at the same time, demonstrating) bowed deeply to Arashi, followed by Naruto and the other seven. "Our many thanks for your excellent work." he said before they departed the shop.

o~o

The next stop, much to Sokka's and Mai's delight, was the weapons and equipment shop. The owner was an older gentleman who was being assisted by a young pretty girl who had a Leaf Headband on her forehead with her hair done up in two buns on the sides of her head. Iruka smiled when he saw her and she waved excitedly at him. Iruka introduced the girl as Tenten, who had graduated his academy class the year prior, before leading them toward the rows of weapons.

Mai's eyes sparkled with an intensity rarely seen in her eyes as she looked around. Even back in the old Fire Nation, she'd never seen such large variety of weapons all in one place! There were knives, spears, shuriken or throwing stars, sais, bows and arrows, several different types of swords, and many others that even _she_ had never seen before.

Sokka looked amazed at all the weapons on display, and started trying some out immediately. He started with a nunchaku, which he ended up banging one end on his head, _again,_ and accidentally knocking over a row of spears as he fell from the impact. This earned a good chuckle from the group, especially Toph and Naruto. Tenten and Mai even gave slight snickers as the water warrior picked himself up and shook off the injury aloofly.

After about fifteen minutes of browsing and testing weaponry, Sokka decided to keep his original boomerang, club, and machete, while also settling on a spatha blade to replace the 'space sword' that he had lost in the battle of Sozin's Comet, explaining to Iruka that he was a very accomplished swordsman in his time. Zuko said the same as he picked out some dual dao blades from the same aisle. Toph felt around and found some soft metal cables that she could practice controlling with her metalbending. Suki settled on a menacing looking katana and some more up to date battle fans. She kept her retractable shield to remind herself of her old life. Katara took a few sets of senbon that she could coat in ice to make them more deadly with her waterbending. Ty Lee didn't take anything saying that her hands were her greatest weapons. Mai on the other hand found an automatic senbon shooter and few special holders for kunai and other weapons that she could hide in her clothes. Tenten, noticing Mai's passion for weapons, offered to teach her some weapon jutsu when neither was out on missions. Mai agreed and said she looked forward to it.

After choosing some personal weapons, Iruka asked Tenten to fetch seven sets of their best kunai and shuriken, assorted smoke and flash bombs, and a few paper bombs. "We'd also like a full set of training weapons, equipment pouches, backpacks, canteens, and other basic survival gear."

Tenten nodded before scampering off to retrieve their request. After paying and slipping the receipt in his pocket, they all bowed to Tenten and her father, who mimicked it back to them.

Now all seven members of the Gaang were weighed down with heavy backpacks filled with all their equipment and their extra uniforms and street clothes they bought from Arashi's. Iruka and Naruto then showed and helped them attach the weapon holster to their dominant leg, and equipment pouches to their belts. He helped Sokka, Suki, Mai, and Zuko strap their new weapons on as well, whether on their back (Suki and Zuko) or on a side holster (Sokka), and assisted Mai on attaching the senbon shooter to her arm, where they could be easily accessible.

Shortly after attaching everything, Naruto's stomach growled loudly, shortly followed by the other seven's. It was then they realized that they were _STARVING! _Who wouldn't be after not having eaten for 1,500 years!?

"As your stomachs so kindly indicated, let's get some dinner." Iruka said with an amused smile, "Still up for Ichiraku's Naruto?"

"You have to ask?" cried the hyperactive blonde in disbelief while shooting his sensei a look that said 'Really? You just asked me that question?'

"What's at Ichiraku's?" asked Sokka. He didn't really care as long as the place had some sort of meat he could get into his system.

"Ramen!" exclaimed Naruto, turning to the group, "the best food in the universe! If you haven't had Ichiraku's ramen, you haven't lived!"

"Well," said Suki with a smile, "that's quite a review!"

"Come on! We're really close to the shop now!" he said as he, Iruka, and the others ran off to the noodle shop.

o~o

Soon the group was all ducking under the drapes of the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

"Hey old man Teuchi!" Naruto greeted as he sat down. The proprietor of the ramen shop was a older man who had a kind face.

"Hey there Naruto, Iruka, the usual miso ramen I'm assuming?" he smiled at his two regulars before turning to the seven new faces, "Why don't you introduce me to your new friends here Naruto?"

"Oh, this is Zuko, Toph, Ty Lee, Sokka, Katara, Mai, and Suki." wanting to cover up the fact that he and Iruka had recently defrosted them out of ice he continued, "They came to the Leaf from far away to become Shinobi and I told them there's no better place for ramen than Ichiraku's!"

Teuchi burst out laughing as he handed menus to the seven newcomers. "Well, I certainly won't argue with my best customer. What can I get you?"

"As long as it has meat, I'll get it!" proclaimed Sokka as he scanned the menu and his eyes lit up when he saw an option for a meat-lover ramen that included beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, and a couple other meats. The water tribe warrior ordered that. Suki and Katara decided to trust Naruto's judgment and ordered miso ramen, while Zuko and Mai got a bowl of beef ramen. Toph, after Katara read the menu choices to her, settled on a shrimp ramen along with Ty Lee.

"Coming right up!" the old man said as he and his daughter Ayame prepared the orders. After a short wait, the food arrived. "There you go, enjoy!"

"Thanks for the food!" they all said semi-unison as they all tucked in.

The Gaang had to admit that Naruto might have a point about this place, because the food was fantastic! The noodles were firm and tender, the broth light but hearty, and soon they were all ordering second bowls. Zuko and Mai got a chicken ramen this time, though it was smaller than the last bowl. Katara got some shrimp ramen like Toph, who in turn got a miso ramen. Suki asked for an order of beef ramen. Naruto, Ty Lee, and Sokka quickly finished their third bowls and seemed to strike up an eating contest. The three finally broke even after their sixth bowl.

As they ate Naruto started to ask questions about their jonin-sensei they would be paired with shortly. Iruka only discussed it lightly since he wasn't supposed to tell who would get which jonin.

"In fact," he said, turning to the three benders and four warriors, "You seven might get a chance to work with each of them on occasion in the following weeks, since you guys are in the opposite situation of most of the other genin."

"What do you mean _opposite_?" asked Toph in a defiant tone, putting her hands on her hips.

Iruka smirked at Toph's attitude, slightly being reminded of Naruto's attitude at the academy. "Well, most genin graduate the academy with a strong basis in basic ninja arts and skills like target practice, tactics, chakra molding, and so on and so forth. They also already know their classmates to some degree as well. What they mostly need practice on is teamwork, which is why they are put into three man squads right off the bat under a jonin sensei." He paused and looked at the Gaang with slight intensity, "On the other hand, the seven of you already have solid teamwork. I could tell by how you acted around each other today. The things you need to work are the basics. The Hokage might have some special training for you guys to help catch up with the other graduates like have your sensei split you up for the day with the other sensei while he/she works with you one-on-one. It could be a good way of allowing your growth as shinobi and as people to increase. But I have no doubt that you'll be trained together for the first couple weeks since you're pretty much starting from square one. Speaking of which, rabbit seal now!"

All of them demonstrated the hand seal correctly, even Naruto, though he was a little caught off-guard by the sudden order. Iruka quizzed them on a couple other seals before smiling broadly in satisfaction.

After eating their fill, Zuko, Suki, Katara, Mai, Ty Lee, Sokka, and Toph waved goodbye to the ramen owner and promised to come by again sometime as they picked up their shopping. The sun was low in the sky by the time they finished and Iruka, turned to Naruto, "Naruto, you think you can convince your landlady to spare some apartments in your building?"

"No problem Iruka Sensei! Got it under control!" said the blonde who saluted Iruka, who smirked.

"Alright then," he said turning to the new group and handing them a map of the village, "I'll see tomorrow at the academy. I marked it with 'x' so you can find it easier. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Sure," nodded Katara, "we'll see you there! Thanks again for everything Iruka Sensei!"

"It was a pleasure. I got to report to the Hokage now, so see you later!" he waved and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

o~o

Next chapter the Gaang meets the rest of the graduates. Keep eyes open for update!


	5. Episode 4: Meetings

Episode 4: Meetings

Naruto must've woken up earlier than the others because the Gaang didn't see him the next morning as they exited their apartments. Just as Naruto had said, there were about six apartments available for his seven new friends. The only ones that decided it would be best if they shared were Katara and Sokka, they were brother and sister after all. The Water Tribe siblings, Toph, and Suki got the apartments below Naruto while Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee got the ones above him.

The apartments they now occupied weren't large, but reasonably comfortable. They were basic two-room studios with a bed in one corner and a kitchenette in the other, with a sliding door leading to the bathroom. All the apartments were identical with the exception of Sokka and Katara's since theirs had an extra bedroom and it was larger, but not by much.

They all met outside the bottom apartments the next morning wearing their new ninja uniforms, and they were even able to convince Suki not to wear all her Kyoshi Warrior makeup, thinking that it could scare the other academy kids and even civilians, so she settled for ditching the white face paint but keeping the red eyeshadow and lips.

After nodding in greeting to one another they all headed toward the academy that Iruka had marked on a map he had given them the day before. With Sokka leading the way, it wasn't long before they saw the ninja academy in view. The Academy as a whole was quite large and was comprised of several buildings, which seemed to have been erected over time. Iruka told them that even if they didn't have the map, that the building could be easily identified by the tree in front of it which had a swing on it and more so, by the giant sign with the kanji for Fire (火) on it.

As a fun fact, Iruka also told them that along with being a school, it was also the area where the Hokage's office was located, which was where missions were dispatched and the day-to-day running of the village took place.

Upon arriving at the Academy, Ty Lee couldn't help but swoon over Sokka's navigational skills, "Oh Sokka, you're _so_ good at reading maps!"

"Thanks!" the Water Tribe Warrior beamed, "I try!"

"You don't have to swoon over every decently good thing a person does Ty Lee," said Mai in her usual gloomy morning attitude.

"I know!" she shrugged, "I just want to!"

As they casually walked down the hall of the academy, they soon spotted Iruka leaning against the door to what they assumed was his classroom. When Iruka saw them he smiled at them, trying his best to ease their nervousness.

"Welcome to the Academy you guys," he greeted them, "this is the room where the senseis meet their squads. Come on in, I'll introduce you to the other genin." Before opening the door, he grimaced and turned his head towards them. "And you might want to cover your ears."

He slid the door open and led the seven youths inside. The classroom was large and had a high ceiling with a large blackboard at the front as well. In front of the blackboard was a podium, situated far from the students' desks and put in a position where the teacher could view everyone at once. The arrival of seven strangers brought something to the room that Iruka thought wasn't possible, silence, as the other graduates stared with awe and confusion at the newcomers. Believing that they were starting to feel a little awkward he wasted no time introducing them to their future teammates. "Class, I'd like to introduce you to seven more peers who will be joining us for graduation. This is Toph Bei Fong ("Sup?" and gives the class a peace sign.), Zuko ("Hey."), Katara (bowing respectfully), Ty Lee ("Hey! Nice meet you!"), Sokka ("Hey! How's it going?"), Mai ("Hi."), and Suki ("Hello."). They've come a long way to train as shinobi of the Leaf," he continued, hiding the fact about them being frozen and thawed out of ice yesterday, "and will be working alongside you in the future. I expect you all to make them feel welcome."

Before anyone else could say anything to them, Naruto leaped out of his seat and bounded down to greet them, which they returned cheerfully, Sokka even pulling him into a headlock and giving him a playful and friendly noogy, and motioned to some vacant seats near and beside him.

They noticed all of the students looking at them skeptically, especially one girl near the back of the room in the corner with black hair, hazel eyes, a black shirt and black pants. Her name was Tatsu. She never smiled, barely talked, and as far as anyone knew, didn't have and wasn't planning on making any friends. When Tatsu saw the seven members of the Gaang enter the room and heard the announcement, the first thing that ran through her head was, 'Great... got seven more weirdos to deal with.' She then watched as Naruto greeted the newcomers and ushered them to some vacant seats near him which all of them took except one. Tatsu was slightly surprised to see Mai walking to the back row and to the seat that was vacant next to her.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, looking at Tatsu.

Tatsu glared at Mai, "Look, just so you know, I'm not going to, nor do I want to be friends with any of you. So don't get any funny ideas, because they aren't going to work."

Tatsu was expecting for Mai to move away and find another seat like any other student would. Instead, the weapon user simply narrowed her eyes, obviously annoyed. "I didn't ask if you wanted to be friends. I asked if this seat is taken." she said in an intimidating tone.

Tatsu blinked, this was a first, "Um... no that seat isn't taken actually."

"So... may I sit here?" Mai asked in an almost threatening tone, leaning forward slightly.

"Sure, whatever." shrugged Tatsu, getting over her slight shock, "Just don't talk to me."

"Thank you." Mai answered, sliding into it, "And don't worry, I wasn't planning to." After that statement, Mai simply folded her hands in front of her chin and looked straight ahead in a brooding manner. Tatsu just decided to leave it at that, turning her attention to the front of the class where Iruka was.

Iruka smiled, before beginning his graduation speech to them. "As of today you are all ninjas! To get here you faced difficult trials and hardships. But that's nothing, what comes next will be far more difficult. Now you are only genin, first level ninjas. All the genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a jonin, an_ elite _ninja." The news of this took most of the room, except Naruto and the Gaang, by surprise. They then remembered that Iruka had told them that the other genin had not been informed of this until now.

'A three man squad?!' thought Tatsu, 'I can't be in a team! But... I can't _not_ be a ninja either! So... that means I don't have choice!'

"Well someone's gotta be in Sasuke's group," said a blonde girl behind a pinkette, who stared at her smugly, "I wonder who?"

The pinkette then sneered back, "I don't know."

A raven-haired boy sitting by the pinkette looked at Iruka in slight disbelief, 'Great... groups of three... that'll only slow me down.'

'Well,' thought Naruto, 'as long as I'm not with Sasuke, I don't really care who I'm grouped with...' he then stared at Katara out of the corner of his eye, 'though I wouldn't mind to have one of my new friends on _my_ team... maybe Katara-' he vigorously shook his head, 'What the heck? Where did _that _come from?!'

"We want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up," Iruka continued to explain before pulling out a packet of paper, "I will now announce the squads."

o~o

After announcing the first six squads, Iruka said, "Squad 7: Sai," an extremely pale, black haired boy sitting near the back of the classroom, drawing, glanced up at hearing his name, "Sakura Haruno," the pinkette looked at Sai with a look in her eye that said: 'could have been worse.' "... And Sasuke Uchiha." At the announcement of this, the pinkette leaped up in triumph and turned to stick out her tongue at the blonde girl who was glaring daggers at her from behind.

'Well, at least I'm not with Sakura and Sasuke,' Tatsu thought, 'what idiots!'

"Next, Squad 8: Kiba Inuzuka," the dog ninja smirked at this, "... Shino Aburame," a boy with a large coat and black glasses simply nodded, "... And Tatsu."

Sneaking a glance over at the dog ninja, Tatsu grabbed the sides of her head, 'It's bad enough I'm forced to be put in a squad, but with Kiba?! Might as well have given him a death sentence!'

"Squad 9: Naruto Uzumaki..." Naruto looked hopefully at his sensei, "... Katara," Katara smiled at Naruto who smiled back, "... and Hinata Hyuga." Upon hearing this, the said Hyuga heiress's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates, turned bright red from shock, and shortly after fell backwards out of her chair and fainted. When she hit the ground though, she had an enchanted smile on her face.

"I-I'm with Naruto," she uttered in a barely audible whisper.

Seeing Hinata faint rather comically, Mai raised an eyebrow at Tatsu, hoping for an explanation, where she in turn simply shrugged as if to say "she's always like that."

As this was happening, Sakura paid no attention and shot a peace sign at Ino who was very ticked off.

"Grrrr... How did _you_ get in his group?" asked Ino furiously.

As she continued to growl, another boy with his black hair in a spiky ponytail looked at her in complete amazement before sighing. "I don't get it, what do you see in a guy like that? He's not so special."

Upon hearing this, Ino turned on the boy, rather miffed, "You are so beyond clueless Shikamaru, don't you get it?"

"No, I don't get it," he replied in a lazy tone, "because I'm not a girl."

This seemed to strike Ino off guard before she sighed aloofly, "You're so full of yourself... Jealousy's a terrible thing. Hate to be on your squad."

Just as she had finished saying this Iruka spoke again, "Now Squad 10: Ino Yamanaka... Shikamaru Nara..."

Hearing this, Ino gasped in horror while Shikamaru smirked, "Ha! Did you say something about hating to be on _my_ squad?" he earned a growl and death glare from Ino in return.

"And... Choji Akimichi." Iruka finished calling out the final squad member.

Ino held her head as she glanced at a chubby boy who was stuffing his face with potato chips, 'Not 'food boy' too!' she thought as she hoped this was simply a nightmare she would be waking up from at any time.

"Squad 11: Toph Bei Fong... Sokka... and Suki!" The three 'ancient' warriors looked like they had just won a free trip to Ember Island, complete with room and board and free food at the restaurants and bars. The three of them high fived each other and muttered "yes!" as they sat back down.

"And finally, Squad 12: Ty Lee... Mai... and Zuko." The three Fire Nation friends nodded to each other in acceptance. Ty Lee even held her palm out to Mai and after making puppy eyes toward the gloomy teen, she slapped the palm with her own, wiggled her fingers with Ty Lee's and finally fist bumped twice.

"Why do you need to do this every single time something good happens?" she asked, finding the idea of a secret handshake weird.

"Because, its what friends do that's why!" bubbled the acrobat. Zuko gently face palmed and smiled as he shook his head with silent laughter. Mai was so cute when she was awkward.

"Alright, those are all the squads-" he was interrupted when Ino stood up and pointed accusingly at Choji and Shikamaru.

"Iruka Sensei!" she practically screeched, "why do _I_ have to be on the same squad as Chubby Buttons and this lazy ass here?" She received glares from the two boys that she had named.

Iruka looked seriously at Ino, it was the same look he gave Naruto when he was goofing off or had played hooky during class. "Ino, from what _I_ recall, you, Shikamaru, and Choji's fathers are the previous generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. You three are the next generation of that formation. So I see that it's fair that you're on the same squad to continue that tradition."

This shut Ino up and she sank back in her chair in embarrassment as Shikamaru simply rolled his eyes and Choji continued to glare at her for called him 'Chubby Buttons'. This only caused the rest of the genin, including the Squads 9, 11, and 12, to start laughing at the blonde, who cheeks began to flush a deep red.

Iruka cleared his voice to silence them, "Ahem... After lunch, you'll meet your new jonin teachers. Until then class dismissed!"

o~o

Outside, Naruto asked Katara if she wanted to eat lunch with him since they were going to be on the same team. She accepted, but then asked if it was okay if Sokka and Zuko's squads joined them as well. Naruto didn't mind the least and Katara quickly called Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Sokka, Suki, and Toph over.

"Hey, Naruto," asked Ty Lee, seeing Sakura as she was wandering around, looking for Sasuke.

"Yeah?"

"Why are all the girls obsessed with that Sasuke guy? I mean, first glance I don't see anything super special about him besides that he's super cute."

"Yeah, same here." agreed Suki as everyone turned their attention to the blonde for an explanation.

"You fancy every half-decent guy you lay your eyes on Ty Lee," drawled Mai annoyed.

Naruto sighed, and began to explain how Sasuke was the top student in class and how he was the sole survivor of the late Uchiha clan. As the Gaang listened they started to feel sorry for the Uchiha prodigy since it reminded them of how Aang ended up after his people, the Air Nomads, died out too.

After hearing the story, Katara saw Hinata giving Tatsu an extra bento box near a bench they were walking by.

"Hey Hinata!" Katara called. Startled, the girl turned to the voice and saw Katara, Naruto and the rest of the Gaang.

"Um... hi!" she called back, while Tatsu just glared at them.

"What do you want?" the hazel-eyed girl hissed, folding her arms.

"Want to come eat lunch with us?" Katara asked running over, "We're new to the village so it would be nice if we got to know some more people."

"No thanks," Tatsu immediately replied, turning away, "I have some things I need to do."

"Oh," said Katara slightly confused, "What sort of things?"

Turning around, Tatsu snarled, "You ask too many questions, and it's things that you wouldn't understand, so just mind your own business!"

Katara backed away, surprised by her outburst, "Oh, okay, see you later then."

Tatsu huffed before quickly walking away. Hinata watched Tatsu go, a look of concern evident on her face. Turning to Katara she said, "I'm sorry about that. T-tatsu doesn't seem t-to like many p-people for some reason."

"That's plain to see." said Sokka, only earning a smack on the head from Suki and a punch in the gut from Toph.

"Sokka, stop it." said Suki as her boyfriend groaned in pain.

"Anyway," Katara, turning to the Hyuga heiress again, "do _you _want eat lunch with us?"

"I-I'd l-love to." she said as she walked over.

Smiling at Hinata, who blushed in return, Naruto led the Gaang to his favorite place to eat besides Ichiraku's; it was by a bench in the perfect shade of buildings and trees. He quickly pulled out some instant ramen bowls and chopsticks and handed them to his friends, who said thanks in return.

Toph was the first one to finish and decided to wait until the others finished to talk more. Eventually, being the stubborn Earthbender she was, she ended up getting bored... and suddenly got a grand idea!

"Hey Naruto, Hinata!" she said turning to the blonde and heiress as she stood up. After getting his attention she asked, "You want to see something cool?" Naruto and Hinata nodded. With a smirk Toph stomped the ground _really_ hard, and after clearing away the dust cloud... saw a perfect scale model of the entire Hidden Leaf Village!

To say Naruto was impressed was an understatement! Naruto was so amazed that he actually ditched his ramen and bent down to get a closer look at Toph's creation. "WHOA!" he cried, "It's a complete model of the village!" he then spotted 10 figures near the miniature academy, "Hey, you even made a mini Iruka Sensei and us!" After pausing for a second he asked, "Hey, is this that Earthbending that old man Hokage was talking about yesterday?"

"Yep," Toph said with a nod and wide smile, "I pretty much have complete control over everything that's under our feet. I even developed metalbending single handedly 1,500 years ago," she explained as she took out a shuriken and started morphing it into different shapes. At one point it was a simple bracelet, then a three dimensional star, and finally a granny knot.

"That is so cool!" cried Naruto, staring in awe.

"Y-yes! It is!" Hinata stammered in shock. She had never seen anything like it before.

Mai shrugged her shoulders before turning back to her noodles, "Eh, if you go for stuff like that."

"Well, what about the rest of you?" Naruto asked, "can you do what Toph did?"

Katara shook her head, "Nope, only Toph can earthbend. I can waterbend though," she demonstrated by bending a wet ramen noodle into her mouth and slurped it up.

"And I'm a firebender," Zuko said plainly and produced a controlled flame in his hand for Naruto to see.

"Oh, okay!" he then turned to Sokka, Mai, Ty Lee, and Suki, "Can you guys bend something?"

"Unfortunately, no," Sokka said shaking his head, "but Suki and I are some pretty kick butt warriors none the less."

"And I'm a weapon specialist like I showed you yesterday," explained Mai, tapping her new senbon shooters.

"And I used to be an acrobat in the circus," bubbled Ty Lee, "but after giving some chi blocking lessons, I joined Suki's group: the Kyoshi Warriors."

"Oh, okay." said Naruto seemingly satisfied, before he asked another question. "Can I ever learn to do that 'bending' stuff you do?"

He was met with disappointment when Katara said, biting her lip, "Sorry, Naruto. Bending is sort of like a special gift. You're either born with the ability or you're not, like how I was born a waterbender and Sokka wasn't."

"Oh," he said bowing his head in slight disappointment. Hinata did the same, believing if she could learn it, she could have a skill that could impress her clan and then gain their respect that way.

After thinking for a second though, Zuko thought of an idea. "Though neither of you might not be able to bend an element, we could probably still teach you a few bending _moves_, would you like that?"

Naruto's face brightened at Zuko's suggestion and nodded vigorously.

"Okay," Zuko said nodding and throwing away his finished ramen before standing up, he then looked at Hinata, "You can learn it too if you want." Hinata smiled and stood up next to Naruto, having finished her bento box. "Let's start then. This move is one of my favorites... our friend Avatar Aang and I learned it together 1,500 years ago..."

"F-fifteen hundred years ago?" asked Hinata in confusion.

"Yeah, long story short..." Sokka explained to Hinata how they had been frozen in ice until yesterday and now they all decided to become ninja since they don't have anywhere else to go.

"Oh!" cried Hinata after hearing the tale, "I-I'm so sorry a-about that."

"Don't worry about it," said Ty Lee as she did a back handspring, "it's the past, and we don't mind."

"Okay," said Zuko, "Anyway, the move about to show you two is called... The Dancing Dragon."

o~o

While Zuko was showing Naruto and Hinata the ancient fighting movements of The Dancing Dragon, another team was enjoying a quiet lunch on a set of stairs above them. It was Team 10 with Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji snacking on some rice balls.

Ino turned to her two teammates resentfully, "Alright, if we're in the same group you're going to have to follow _my_ lead. That's the only way it'll work!"

"Yeah, yeah," sighed Shikamaru with an annoyed expression before thinking, 'That's the only way it'll work because she throws a _fit_ if she doesn't get her way!'

"Why don't you lead us to some barbecue, Ino!" Choji joked as Ino held her forehead in annoyance.

"You're hopeless!" she cried.

Shikamaru then noticed something out the corner of his eye and kneeled down to get a closer look. Down below he saw Hinata and Naruto performing some sort of dance. They had just ended it from the looks of it because their fisted hands were forming an arc between the two of them.

"Hey, isn't that Naruto, Hinata, and those seven new kids?" asked the lazy genius. Ino and Choji turned and followed Shikamaru's eyes to the group below. They even caught part of their conversation afterwards.

"Nice Naruto, Hinata!" they heard Zuko say as he clapped his hands a few times, "You got that almost instantly!"

"S-so what you were saying earlier is that y-you used this style of fighting t-to help your f-firebending?" they heard Hinata asked.

'Firebending?" thought the trio above. 'He obviously must mean Fire _style_!'

"That's correct, because of that I was able to get stronger, _and _defeat my sister, and Aang was able to defeat the Father Lord at that time." Zuko explained.

"... You mean the _Fire_ Lord." corrected Suki, pointing at Zuko with her chopsticks.

"That's what I said!" Zuko shot back at the Kyoshi Warrior before turning his attention back to the blonde and heiress, "Anyway, you're right Hinata, because of this form of fighting, my firebending became stronger!" To prove his point, Zuko shot two large fireballs from his hands using the Dancing Dragon movements, much to Team 10's amazement.

"Totally cool!" exclaimed Naruto enthusiastically, with sparkly eyes.

"Did he just shoot fire from his hands?" asked Ino in astonishment.

"How did he do that?" asked Shikamaru in equal awe.

Choji was so shocked that he dropped his bag of potato chips, causing the final chip to fall out and land on Sokka's head. Feeling the impact of a light falling object on him, Sokka picked the potato chip off his head and examined it with a critical eye. Seeing what happened Team 10 held their breath as they saw the Water Tribe warrior take the chip off his head and look at it, while also glaring at Choji out of the corner of their eyes.

"What's this?" asked Sokka he held the potato chip a good arms length like it was a explosive.

"Oh, that's a potato chip." elaborated Naruto, "You eat it!"

"Oh!" said Sokka, as he still looked at the food suspiciously. He licked it cautiously tasting the salty flavor. Finding the taste good, he grinned and popped the rest of the crunchy snack into his mouth. "Hmmm... Different, but delicious!"

"Wait," said Katara, "did that potato chip you just ate fall out of the sky?"

Toph immediately put her hand against the wall behind them and listened. After a few seconds she smirked wickedly, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have three peeping toms at 12:00!" She quickly punched the wall and immediately a rockslide appeared underneath the feet of Team 10, and before they knew what was happening, they were screaming as they slid down the makeshift rockslide. They all landed flat on their faces right in front of the benders.

"Huh, Sasuke fan girl #1, pineapple head, and the chip eating kid." said Mai.

Ino was the first to recover and immediately started asking many freaked out questions a mile a minute. "Wai-? How-? Who-? What?! What are you guys?!"

Toph grinned smugly and shrugged as if what just happened was no big deal, "Nothing, I'm just the greatest earthbender in the world, that's all!"

"What's an earthbender?" asked Shikamaru as he stared at Toph in shock. He then noticed that Toph's eyes were extremely pale, not as pale as Hinata's, but pale all the same, "And how can you fight if you're blind?"

Toph placed her hands on her hips and huffed in an annoyed tone. "Why does everyone who finds out I'm blind automatically think that I'm a helpless little girl?!" she ranted before turning on the shadow user, "Look here bub, just because I can't see you, doesn't mean I'm defenseless! I bet if we went one on one right now it would take two seconds for you to run home to _your_ mommy in tears!"

"Okay," Shikamaru said backing away so that she could calm down, "sorry! No need for violence." In his head he thought 'If I had to choose between the two though, I'd pick my mom in an instant!'

"Toph, calm down before you really _do_ make one of them cry." said Katara to the Blind Bandit in a motherly tone.

"Ugh, fine!" Toph pouted, but still shot the trio an 'I'm watching you' look before backing down completely.

"What were you three doing spying us like that?" asked Zuko, as he looked at the young Ino-Shika-Cho trio like they were nothing but troublemakers.

"We weren't spying on you!" Ino shot back at the master firebender, "We just so happened to be eating lunch right above you and we heard part of your conversation before this nitwit nearly killed us!" she finished looking at Toph.

"WHAT!" screamed Toph as she stomped the ground and ended up making a giant crater underneath. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio backed up slowly.

"Uh, oh," laughed Ty Lee, "Someone just got _really_ mad!"

"I-Ino," said Choji nervously, "W-why don't we just leave these guys alone and get out of here!"

"Yeah, that would be a wise move." Sokka admitted smugly, "It's not safe to hang around Toph when she's angry. I say she's about as angry as a hungry saber-toothed moose lion right now!"

When Sokka received looks from the three that asked 'Did this guy knock a screw loose?' Suki rephrased, "In other words you should get out of here while you still can."

That was all it took for the trio to run in the opposite direction of them. They didn't stop until they were back at the academy. Naruto stared at his new friends in awe and slight nervousness himself. Hinata was just as shocked.

"Well, remind me to never get on your bad sides." he chuckled nervously as he scratched his head.

"Yeah, that wouldn't be the smartest move to make," said Suki who was trying to hold back laughter from the scene that was just caused.

Naruto and Hinata chuckled nervously. Katara then put a hand on their shoulders and Sokka ruffled Naruto's hair. "Don't worry Naruto, Hinata, we'd never do that to you though, don't worry." the water bender reassured him.

The jinchuriki smiled at Katara's words, "Thanks you guys."

"Y-yes," stuttered Hinata, "Th-thank you."

"No problem," said Ty Lee, flipping out of her back spring, "and don't be too shy around people. Or else you'll miss the fun part about life... Socializing!" Hinata blushed in embarrassment at Ty Lee's antics. She was glad she had friends looking out for her now.

Naruto then noticed that lunchtime was almost over. "Come on, let's head back before Iruka lectures me about being late again!"

This caused the group to chuckle as they packed up their lunch and strolled back to the academy building. Toph then punched Naruto in the arm... _really_ hard.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?" Naruto asked as he rubbed his sore arm.

"That's how I show affection." she replied before bursting into laughter again.

o~o

The Gaang was almost back at the academy. They were passing through an area just behind the building surrounded by trees. The group then spotted a familiar pair of genin up ahead of them.

"Hey, aren't they Sasuke and Sakura?" asked Zuko pointing at them.

"You mean the pinkette and the cute raven head?" asked Ty Lee following his gaze.

"Yeah, that's them..." said Naruto before his eyes narrowed. 'What's going on?' He then went and hid in the forest behind the bench Sakura had been sitting on and ushered the others to follow him.

"Naruto, what are we doing?" asked Suki as they crouched in the trees.

"Yeah, Naruto," agreed Katara, "we shouldn't be eavesdropping! It's rude!"

"Something's up," he explained, "I want to hear what they're saying."

"Yeah, lighten up Sugar Queen!" said Toph, "We might get something juicy!"

Down below they heard the conversation between the two graduates below.

"Are you ready now, you know, mentally prepared?" Sakura asked giddily, not noticing Sasuke just walking by, "Because I am! I mean I'm rare and to go!" the pinkette then noticed that Sasuke was just walking right past her. Turning around she called, "Hey, wait a minute!"

Sasuke paused and turned slightly toward the pinkette. "Where's Sai?" he asked. This made the group above and Sakura raise an eyebrow. What did Sai have to do with any of this? When the group gave Naruto a questioning gaze he simply shrugged, saying he didn't know what he was talking about.

Shaking it off, Sakura said with a smile, "Oh see? There you go changing the subject again! Anyway, Sai just picks fights with you. Though he's no worse than Naruto." Folding her arms she continued, "You know why he's so annoying? Because he wasn't raised right! He doesn't have a mother or father. No one to teach him right from wrong!"

At this statement, the Gaang noticed Naruto get a sad look on his face. There was an emotion on his face that they hadn't seen until now. It was loneliness, and longing for a friend.

'Naruto.' thought Hinata sadly. She could only imagine what he suffered when he was younger, sitting by himself on the swing with no friends to talk to.

When the Gaang heard the statement, they all clenched their fists in anger. This chick didn't have any right to talk about Naruto that way! What did she know about losing parents and living on your own? They knew how it felt. Sokka, Katara, and Zuko all lost their mothers during the war, Suki never knew her folks, and Ty Lee, Mai, and Toph's 'parents' were more like the dictators of their lives! Now that they thought about it, they wouldn't even call them 'parents' at all!

"Think about it!" Sakura continued her rant, "He just does whatever comes into his head!" Sasuke sent Sakura a glare that she obviously was oblivious to see. "If I did things like Naruto, forget it! I mean my parents would get mad and I'd get in trouble so of course I don't do it!" Sasuke's glare got deeper and the Gaang knew that if this Sakura girl didn't shut up soon, she'd be dead! But alas, she continued her little monologue. "But if you don't have parents to tell you, how would you know? He's selfish and bratty! He's all alone!"

"That's it!" Toph said with a low hiss, "That girl's gone too far! I'm going to teach her a lesson!" As she was about to rise from their hiding place it wasn't Katara that pulled her back down, but Sokka and Naruto. "What are you two doing? Sokka, I know you want to beat her up as much as the rest of us! And Naruto aren't you upset that she called you all those things?"

"Of course I am Toph!" the blonde admitted, "but if I confront her or beat her up with the rest of you, she won't see me any differently!"

"I agree with Naruto, Toph," said Sokka, "and trust me. I'm as angry as you are! But if we go and 'knock some sense into her' she'll only see Naruto in an even worse light! It's best if we just stay back and listen."

Toph growled one last time before slumping back, seeing that Snoozles and Naruto did have a point. But that didn't mean that this chick was off the hook yet... not by a long shot!

They then heard Sasuke speak for the first time after Sakura's rant. "Alone... isolated..."

"Huh?" they heard Sakura ask, confused.

"It's not about your parents scolding you." he said, "You have no idea what it means to be alone."

"Wh-why are you saying that?" Sakura asked, suddenly very nervous. 'Did I say something wrong?'

"Because," he said, turning to face her, "you're annoying!"

Sakura gasped and the Gaang's and Naruto's mouths were agape. If this is what Sasuke was like all the time, what did she see in this moron?! Ty Lee even changed her mind about finding him cute. _He_ was the selfish and bratty one, not Naruto! Sasuke simply walked away after his remark and Sakura was left standing there in shock. Eventually, Sakura plopped back onto the bench and bowed her head.

'I'm annoying?' she thought to herself, 'That's what he said...' suddenly something clicked in her head, 'Now I get it, this is how Naruto must feel...' aloud she said, "I shouldn't treat him like that... Next time I see him, I'm going to be nice."

Naruto smiled and motioned to the Gaang to follow him down to the path again. They got back on a little further away, to make it look like they were just arriving. They strode down the path as Sokka told them the plan he thought of as they listened.

"Okay, remember," he said in a low whisper, "Act oblivious, like you don't see her there. Let her be the one to say hello first."

"Okay, got it," Naruto nodded as they neared closer. Sakura finally saw them when they were halfway down.

'You got this Naruto,' thought Hinata as they strode past.

'Oh, Naruto... and Hinata and those new people,' she thought as she attempted to smile, but it came out as only one part of her mouth curved up. 'Smile! Smile!' she told herself in her head. She quickly stood up and waved at them. "Hey Naruto! Do you want to walk back to class together?"

Naruto, Hinata, and the Gaang stopped dead in shock. They were only expecting a quick 'hello!' or 'hey!' Not an offer to walk back to class with him.

"Did she really just say that?" Naruto asked.

"As a matter of fact, she did." admitted Sokka with a nod.

"Okay!" said Naruto, as he ran over with the others, "Sounds good!"

"Great!" she said still with her crooked forced grin. She then noticed the rest of the Gaang, "Let's see if I remember your names," she pointed to each of them, "Sokka, Suki, Toph, Ty Lee, Mai, Zuko, and Katara right?"

"That's us!" said Ty Lee with a smile, "Sakura right?"

"Yep!"

"Nice to officially meet you." said Katara as she half bowed to her. Said pinkette returned it.

'Looks like Naruto is finally starting to make some real friends.' Hinata as the group walked back to the academy with Sakura.

o~o

Another update! YAY!

Okay so I just need to explain a couple of things.

First off, the oc in this fic, Tatsu, belongs to my friend who asked if she could be included in this fic. This happened because I originally wasn't going to include Mai and Ty Lee in the fic until my brother asked me to, but I couldn't think of another person to make equal three man squads for them. Fortunately, my friend came to the rescue! I hope you enjoy her. She'll be playing a big role in the fic in the future. Check out her story on under **Tatsu Fuzen **on a website called 'Figment' if you're interested!

Second, I hope your okay with the changes I made to the squads. I find kind of stereotypical that Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee are on the same squad, but I couldn't picture it any other way.

Third, you may have noticed that I included Sai in the first part of Naruto this time around! And yes, I'm keeping him this way as well... which means, be prepared to expected some other Shippuden characters to come popping up in the future chapters!

That's it for announcements!

The Gaang and Naruto: R &amp; R please!


	6. Episode 5: Survival Test (Team 11)

Episode 5: The Survival Test (Team 11)

Just as Naruto had said, lunchtime had ended and Sokka and most of the other academy students were back in the academy room chatting and eager to meet their jonin sensei. Katara, Ty Lee, and Toph seemed to be holding a steady conversation with Sakura and Hinata even after they had entered the classroom. Zuko was eventually cornered in a conversation with a boy with red fang marks on his cheeks, which Sokka remembered was named Kiba Inuzuka. Mai ended up sitting by Tatsu again, who seemed to be answering her questions with 'yes' or 'no' with no complicated phrases in between. Suki was sitting by a boy with a hooded jacket and sunglasses named Shino Aburame, and he didn't seem to be much of a talker either, but was holding a better conversation than Tatsu and Mai were.

Not wanting to get bored just sitting around, Sokka scanned the room looking for someone that might hold a conversation with him. He noticed that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was trying to stay as far away from them as possible. Probably still in shock from the fiasco earlier that day. Sasuke looked as unapproachable as ever with his brooding glare. Sitting near the back of the room was a boy wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a high collar, and matching pants which appeared to be dark purple color. He was drawing in a notepad from the looks of it. He didn't seem like a much better option, however he did seem less likely to snap at him if he just said hello.

He strode to the back of the room and sat in the chair in front of him, spun fully around, and hesitantly said, "Um... hi."

He looked up, slightly startled by his appearance, "Oh... um..." he muttered before finally putting on a fake smile saying, "Hello."

"Your name's Sai right?" Sokka persisted.

Said boy nodded still smiling, "Yes, I am."

Sokka continued on, "I'm Sokka. It's nice to meet you." He bowed slightly in his chair.

Sai returned the bow. "Pleasure to meet you too..." he then glanced down at his notepad and Sokka caught a glimpse of what he was drawing. It looked like a series of blue and red crashing waves.

"Wow," said Sokka, admiring the drawing, "you're a good artist! Maybe you could teach me."

"You like to draw?" asked Sai in interest.

"Yeah," nodded Sokka, "but my friends claim I'm terrible at it, and said I should stick to stuff I'm actually good at like being sarcastic."

"Oh I see," Sai said in understanding, "yes, maybe I could teach you a few things."

"Cool," Sokka looked at the drawing again, "what are you going to name it?"

Sai raised an eyebrow, confused, "Name what?"

"The drawing, you obviously must want to call it something."

Understanding Sai said, "Well, I've drawn hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures so far… other pictures have the situation at the time, and the artist's feelings… like portraits have the person's name… but don't pictures usually have titles…? To be more precise, even if I try to give them titles, I just can't do it. I don't feel anything… they don't put me in mind of anything."

Sokka scowled, 'What's that supposed to mean?' he thought as a tall man, with brown eyes, short, black spiky hair, and a beard came walking in the door. His clothing consisted of the standard Leaf ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up halfway, flak jacket, regular shinobi sandals and forehead protector. He also wore a sash that had the kanji for "Fire" (火) marked on it around his waist, and a pair of black bangles and bandages was wrapped around the arms of his sleeves. The man called for Team 10, who promptly exited the room. After they left Sokka continued talking.

"You mean you don't name any of your drawings?"

"No," Sai said, still smiling as he shook his head, "like I said, no titles really come to mind."

Before Sokka could protest about such nonsense, the door to the classroom opened again and a woman's voice called, "Team 8?" She was a fairly tall and light-skinned woman who was slender built. She had long, black, shoulder-length untamed hair, and very unique eyes that were red in color, with an additional ring in them. She was wearing make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Her outfit consisted of a red mesh armor blouse with only the right sleeve visible. Overall, she had a very broad material, which resembled bandages with a pattern on it similar to rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were also wrapped in bandages and she was wearing the Leaf forehead protector and regular shinobi sandals.

Tatsu stood up, as well as Shino and Kiba with Akamaru. The dog jumped onto his shoulder, and settled on his head. As she left with her squad, another jonin entered the room. He had brown, shoulder-length hair, which hung about his face and brown eyes. He was wearing his forehead protector like a bandanna, the standard jonin outfit, and had a senbon in his mouth.

"I'll be taking Team 11," he stated. Sokka, Suki, and Toph all got up and filed out of the room following him. They waved farewell to Katara, Mai, Ty Lee, Zuko, Hinata, and Naruto, shooting them looks that said, "Good luck."

The man led them out of the building and turned south down the street, away from the Academy. They heard Kurenai finish talking to her squad. "...Meet me there as fast as you can." Her hands blurred into a seal and she disappeared in a flurry of leaves. The three genin then all leapt straight into the air and raced southward, Kiba and Akamaru easily outstripping the other two.

Sokka and Suki stared, jaws open. "That's incredible!" muttered Suki.

"What? What's incredible?" asked Toph glancing around.

"Kurenai's squad just jumped onto those buildings over there and are heading south right now." explained Sokka to the blind earthbender, "Man, they're fast!"

"You'll be able to do that soon enough too," their sensei, promised as he followed their gaze, "You always have to learn to crawl before you walk, though." They continued to follow him along the streets in roughly the same direction, though at a walking pace. He led them into a fenced-off area, which he said was Training Ground 15. It was grassy, and there was a small pond and a few trees inside. There was also a small fire pit surrounded by stones, a picnic table, what appeared to be a single standing wall, and a flagless flagpole. The jonin explained to them that if they passed his inspection as genin, this would be where a majority of their training would take place.

"What do you mean 'pass your inspection'?" asked Toph putting her hands on her hips.

The jonin raised an eyebrow, apparently not appreciating Toph's attitude. "What I mean is, if I see the three of you are fit to become genin, then I can report to the Hokage so that we can officially become Team 11. However, if I see that the three of you_ aren't _qualified enough to do so, you'll be sent back to the Academy for another year of training. Don't think that just because you are recognized as honorary citizens that you'll get off the hook that easily. In fact, this was kept from all the academy students, even you, until now, only six of the teams are going to be passing inspection, the other half will be sent back to the Academy. Understand now?"

The three of them suddenly got nervous on how deliberate his voice was when he explained this. That meant that depending on how well they performed in front of him, would determine if they truly did become ninja at all!

"But before we do that, and in case the three of you _do_ pass, why don't we introduce ourselves? I'll go first. My name is Genma Shiranui. I have a few likes and dislikes. I have a few hobbies, including swordsmanship and traveling, and as for my dreams... I don't exactly have any right now."

The three looked at him as if expecting him to continue, before Sokka broke the silence, "Tha-That's it? What kind of introduction is that?"

Genma shrugged, "It's mine. All right, your turn." gesturing to the Water Tribe Warrior.

"Well okay. Hi, I'm Sokka. I like meat, comedy, my girlfriend, and my friends. _Love_ my sister and I also _loved _my family. I don't like people who rely too much on superstition and don't pay enough attention to logic and scientific evidence of a situation. I _hated _the war that we had to live through back home, and the fact that I'll never see my dad or people again. My hobbies... I guess swordsmanship like you, hunting, and strategizing things. And like you, at the moment I don't really have any dreams."

Toph went next. "Name's Toph Bei Fong. I like solid earth, minerals, and metal, staying on the ground so I see, and badgermoles or any other animal that lives underground that uses anything but eyes to see. I dislike people who find out I'm blind and immediately think that I'm a helpless little girl when I'm not. I also don't like people who harm my friends, and I especially hate flying, because I can never see anything in the air. My hobbies are earthbending and instructing people. At the moment, I don't have any dreams either."

Suki finished it off. "My name's Suki. I like my boyfriend, helping those in need, and being a Kyoshi Warrior, even if there aren't around anymore. I dislike people who think girls can't fight, and show no honor to our founder: Avatar Kyoshi. My hobbies are training, exploring, and traveling, and I don't have any dreams."

Genma nodded, "Alright then. The rules to the test I'm giving you right now are simple." he pulled out his _tanto_ blade, "I'm going to pull each of you aside and we're going to have a small duel. During the duel I will be analyzing each of your individual skills, so attack me as if I'm your enemy. It doesn't matter if I beat you, or you beat me, depending on what I think of your skills and battle styles will determine whether or not I'll agree to train you. But... there's a catch. If I find even one of you isn't worthy of becoming a genin now, all three of you will be sent back to the Academy, no matter how well the other two performed."

This statement sent chills down even Toph's spine. That meant that if even _one_ of them performed crappy in front of Genma, he could send all _three_ of them back to the Academy!

"Now then," he said as he got into his battle stance, "Who'd like to go first?"

Toph was the first to get over her nervousness and stepped forward leisurely before shooting Sokka and Suki a look that said: 'You better not mess this up!'. "Don't blame me if I end up sending you to the hospital after!"

"Don't underestimate you-" before the jonin could finish, a mound of earth erupted under his feet. He quickly leapt backwards and landed on the ground, only to see Toph swing her arms forward, and send large boulders coming at him from different directions.

'So this is the 'earthbending' Lord Third talked about.' Calmly he sidestepped them, dodging by mere millimeters, only to see a third rock coming right toward him. In a swift motion, he spit the senbon hanging from his mouth, hitting the rock in the center. After making contact, the rock split in half from the impact and whisked past Toph and narrowly missed hitting Suki if Sokka hadn't shoved her out of the way. He then stood his ground as the three teens looked in shock at his feat.

"How'd he do that?!" asked Suki in mild surprise. Sokka was in so much shock that he didn't say anything and just stood there with his mouth hanging open.

"If you would let me finish..." Genma huffed, "I was going to say to never underestimate your opponent."

"Yeah, yeah," said Toph impatiently, "whatever. Lecture's over! Time's up!" She slammed one foot down on the ground hard, causing a multitude of rocks to shoot toward him. Genma quickly did several backflips to avoid the debris and suddenly slammed right into a rock outcropping that he was sure wasn't there a second ago.

'Impressive,' he thought as he rubbed his sore backside, 'she lured me into her trap using that frontal attack to draw my complete attention so that she could then attack me from the rear when I least expected it.'

Genma then suddenly felt himself sinking into the ground as giant rock slabs erupted around him. Calmly, he punched himself out of the ground just narrowly avoiding Toph's earth trap. The second he landed though a giant rock silhouette slammed into him, in which he presumed that Toph had encased herself in the rock like armor. Ignoring the numbing sense in his right hand, he placed both of his hands on her and attempted to push her back.

'Why go for a frontal attack again? Unless...!' Realizing another trap in the nick of time, he jumped back as the entire rock armor exploded outward towards him, forcing him to use both his hands and feet to block all the flying debris.

Toph heard the jonin slam into a tree in front of her with an 'oof' and grinned, knowing she had won. She then heard a pop and felt... a wooden log hit the ground instead of the jonin's body.

"Huh? Where'd he go?" asked Toph, using the Earth to look around.

"Behind you." said a male voice directly behind her. Toph was just about to send an earth spire at him, thinking that the fight was still going on, when he swiftly grabbed her hand and slowly lowered it. "The fights over. Well done. You never lost the position of your enemy and never stopped thinking about your next move. You even used the environment around you to benefit your earthbending. Not only knowing who and where the enemy is at all times, but also understanding the terrain of the land, is crucial to the success of a mission. Toph Bei Fong... you pass."

Toph jumped up and did a fist pump in victory. She had managed to impress Genma with her earthbending and was one step closer to becoming a true genin. Now she just had to hope Sokka and Suki did just as well for her to pass completely.

"Alright," Genma said after dusting himself off and turning to Sokka and Suki, "Who's next?"

"I guess I'll go." said Suki, detracting her shield and fan as she approached.

"Ready?" asked Genma. Before Suki could even nod, he rushed forward and shot several kunai in Suki's direction. Crouching behind her shield, the ex-Kyoshi Warrior quickly blocked all of them. Seeing Genma pull another set of kunai out, Suki ditched her fans and shield for a moment and brandished her katana, using it to deflect them before making a frontal charge at the jonin. As the two swordsmen exchanged blows, it wasn't long before Genma disarmed Suki and hit her in the back with the butt of his tanto. Suki stumbled to the ground and Genma attempted to back kick her, but the green clad girl dodged at the last moment and back flipped toward her fan and shield again to deflect another volley of kunai and, this time, shuriken. Taking the fan she was holding, she flung it at the jonin like a fuma shuriken which Genma dodged and then used a kunai to nail it to a nearby tree, out of reach. At the same time he threw another volley of shuriken at Suki, which she jumped over as she pulled out her other fan.

'She always has a back up plan in mind, just in case the first one fails, like keeping one of her fans near her while using the other to fight.' Genma thought as he faced the Kyoshi Warrior again, 'Not bad, she has impressive leadership skills.'

The jonin then noticed that Suki once again put her fan away and retracted her shield. She then ran up to Genma with her middle and index fingers extended.

'This style is...!' Genma didn't have time to finish thought as Suki's fingers collided with the side of his right shoulder. Recognizing a style similar to the Hyuga's gentle fist, he expected to feel his chakra flow simply diminish from it, but instead he felt far more than simply that though, he felt his entire arm suddenly go numb and slump down to his side, causing his tanto to clattered the ground. When the jonin attempted to move his dominant arm, he saw that it only seemed to twitch slightly, but it made no move to rise back up to defend him. In an attempt to strike the Warrior with his left, she simply hit the other shoulder the same way. Now _both _of his arms were useless. Being the jonin who usually didn't back down very easily though, Genma made an attempt to sweep kick Suki only for her to retaliate with a sharp poke to his upper thigh. Now his leg was limp!

Genma smirked as he kept his balance on his non-dominant leg. 'It's just one trick after another with this one!' Before he could say another thought, Suki swung around and round housed him against a tree, where she was on him again in seconds, pressing one of his limp arms to the trunk to keep him there. As her fist came up to punch him, it stopped centimeters from his face, and both of them smirked knowingly, Suki had beaten him, fair and square.

"Okay." Genma said with a nod, "I'm done. I know when I'm beaten."

Suki grinned and released her sensei before she unlocked his pressure and chakra points. Genma flexed his arms and hands, getting used to regaining feeling in his limbs, before turning to face Suki. "First off, I must ask, what did you do to me? I recognized the style you used was similar to the Hyuga Clan's gentle fist, but instead of simply my chakra being drained, my entire arm and leg went limp."

Suki smiled, "Nothing really, just a little trick my friend Ty Lee taught me and the other Kyoshi Warriors. We call it chi blocking, where we hit a certain point on the body called a pressure point that stops the blood flow to that area, rendering it useless for a couple hours unless its hit the right way again. Ty Lee was way better at it than the rest of us were... I only know a few specific points, and the others... don't work for some reason, but it's a work in progress."

"I see, very resourceful." Genma nodded in understanding, "Suki, because of your unique battle style and always remembering to have a backup plan or a surprise up your sleeve if something else fails, you pass."

"Yes!" she cried throwing her fist in the air and smiling broadly.

Sokka gulped. Both Suki and Toph had passed Genma's inspection. Now it was up to him to make sure that they could all pass... he couldn't mess this up now!

"Alright, now last but not least..." Genma said, turning to Sokka after he picked up his tanto, "Sokka."

Taking a deep breath Sokka drew his spatha sword and held it in a ready position. Genma did the same with his tanto. Both of them were staring the other down, no emotion of fear or nervousness present on Sokka's face. In fact, he felt a small sense of deja vu as he stared at the jonin. It reminded him of how he faced Master Piandao, the great swordsman, 1,500 years ago.

'I can do this!' Sokka thought as he narrowed his eyes more. Suki bit her lip as she matched from the side. Toph had both of her fingers crossed behind her back.

'Come on Snoozles! Don't fail us now!' she thought as got ready for the battle to start.

After staring each other down for a few more moments, Genma charged forward causing Sokka to back up quickly and blocked the blows that Genma dealt with surprising skill in Genma's sense. Sokka was able to dodge every attack that he threw at him. Sokka jumped as Genma tried to perform a clean sweep, and then rushed his sensei, sword extended outward, but ran too far inward and Genma was able to elbow him away and attempted to disarm him, but the warrior quickly backed up and did a backward somersault into the picnic bench, which he then leapt onto. Genma charged again, swinging his tanto at the warrior, only for him to leapt from the table to the bench to the ground and vice versa, avoiding Genma's strikes.

'I see,' thought Genma as he attempted to slice at him again, 'he's using his agility to try and outwit me, since I'm older than he is. Quite smart of him.'

Genma charged Sokka again sword outward, which the warrior was able to block. Eventually, they dueled themselves into the area that Genma had tested Toph, where the jutted outcroppings of earth still present. At one point, Sokka got backed into a slab of one of the spires and quickly blocked and dodged several blows sent his way, leaving behind cut marks in its wake. Sokka then cartwheeled to the side and attempted an offensive blow by leaping off the rock spire at Genma, who dodged it with ease, causing Sokka to have to somersault to another rock slab, but this time jumped on top of it to get a better advantage from the higher ground.

'He has a good use of terrain,' Genma thought as he slashed at him again, 'Using higher ground to gain an advantage.'

Genma sliced directly at Sokka's feet, thinking he could knock the boy off balance, but was surprised when Sokka used his sword to hold it and his foot to keep it under him. After attempting to make the sword budge, Genma hefted Sokka's foot off it by angling it upward and Sokka lost his balance and fell to the ground. Toph and Suki cringed when they saw and felt what happened.

He recovered quickly, using a tree for support as Genma rushed him again. Struggling to his feet Sokka ran off into the forest surrounding the grounds. As he ran, he sliced and hacked at low tree branches and roots that he could use to confuse and use against his sensei. It seemed to succeed to a degree because to avoid getting hit by the tumbling debris, Genma was forced to continue slicing as he ran. When Genma almost caught up to him, Sokka pulled on a low hanging branch to the side of him and released it like a catapult that would have hit Genma if he hadn't seen it coming.

'Impressive,' Genma smirked as he and Sokka exchanged blows once again and Sokka tried to catapult another branch at him, which he sliced before it could hit its intended target, 'He's not just relying on his sword work, but he's using his surroundings to fight for him too.'

Sokka burst out of the forest, running for dear life, not noticing Genma changing direction to appear in front of him. At the last moment, Sokka looked forward and slid across the ground to avoid being beheaded by Genma's waiting tanto. He then stuck his sword in the deep dirt and hefted it upward in Genma's direction, temporarily blinding him by getting dirt in his eyes.

'Very resourceful,' Genma thought as he kept his eyes closed and channeled his chakra to his ears to enhance his hearing. Nervously, Sokka raised his sword in the defensive position and tried to sidestep away from the jonin. But fate played a cruel joke as Sokka accidentally stepped on a twig that he didn't see in his way, alerting the jonin of his position. Still with his eyes glued shut, Genma charged to Sokka's position and caught Sokka's blade into a deadlock, and spun it around until catching the tip and disarming the warrior. In shock that he lost, Sokka didn't see the butt of Genma's tanto coming at his stomach until it hit, throwing him to the ground in the opposite direction of the sword. Sokka looked up in fear as Genma swiped his sword from the ground and pointed them in an 'X' shape at him in victory. Suki and Toph scrambled over in an attempt to intervene, but found it unnecessary as Genma placed his tanto back into his holster and finally wiped the dust and dirt from his eyes. With his trademark smirk he offered Sokka his hand, who, after a little hesitation, took it. He then offered his spatha sword back, the blade facing down. Sokka grabbed it and reasserted it into his side holster. He then motioned for Sokka to stand by Toph and Suki as he turned to face the three.

"Congratulations. Not only do I find your battle repertoire impressive, but all of you have your own strengths in both body and mind. Strengths that when you the three of you fight as one, will make you unstoppable."

"Wait! Does that mean-!" Sokka started, a smile spreading across his face.

"That's correct... I see all of you fit to become genin for this village!" Genma confirmed with a nod. What followed was a series of "Alright"s and "We did it"s as the new Team 11 congratulated each other. Clearing his throat to gain their attention once again, the swordsman continued, "As of today, we are now officially Team 11. From now on, we will complete missions and training together on this very field. Our first training session starts tomorrow at 7:00 sharp. And don't be late!"

"Yes, Genma Sensei!" the trio chorused and bowed to their new teacher.

"Alright, I need to report to the Hokage to make it official, so you are dismissed for the rest of the day." Genma made a series of hand signs, "See you all tomorrow!" And without another word, the jonin disappeared in a flurry of leaves, leaving the Team 11 genin standing there staring in awe.

"Ninja training... is awesome!" said Toph with a smile as Sokka and Suki nodded in agreement.

o~o

AN: Phew! This took me all of yesterday and today to complete so I hope you enjoyed it!

I figured out of all the remaining jonin from the Leaf that Genma could turn out to be a pretty decent teacher for this squad, especially Sokka and Suki with their sword techniques.

Next chapter will be Team 12's survival test! Let's see how the Fire Nation trio do with _their_ new sensei! Should only take about a week to complete, but no promises, school started about a week ago, plus when you're on a varsity tennis team, the schedule can get pretty hectic! So please bare with me!

Plus, please check my profile, I just posted a poll that I'd like answers for future reference in the Chunin and Saskue Retrieval Arcs. It'd be a big help!

Team 11: R &amp; R Please!


	7. Episode 6: Survival Test (Team 12)

Episode 6: Survival Test (Team 12)

Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee didn't have to wait very long for their sensei to show up after Toph, Suki, and Sokka left. In fact he came in right after they exited the building. The jonin had dark, spiky hair and was wearing red-framed sunglasses, which obscured his eyes. He was wearing the standard Leaf shinobi outfit complete with flak jacket and forehead protector, the latter of which was worn slightly tilted to the left.

"Team 12's with me," he said as he waited for Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko to rise from their seats. They followed him out of the classroom and out of the Academy and in the opposite direction of Genma's team. They eventually made it to another fenced off area marked Training Ground 6. This training field was covered in more forest than Training Ground 15 and had a larger pond as well. On most of the trees were targets for weapon practice, there were even still some nailed into the bull's eyes, as if someone had been training there recently. There was still a small fire pit surrounded by stones, a picnic table, a standing wall, and a flagless flagpole though.

"Alright," said the jonin, stopping to face the trio, "if you guys manage to pass the survival test I'll be giving you momentarily, this is where we will be doing a majority of our ninja training together, so unless I tell you otherwise, you are to always meet here for practice. That understood?"

"Yes sir!" the three chorused and nodded to their sensei.

"But first, why don't you introduce yourselves." suggested the jonin to the group.

"Sure!" exclaimed Ty Lee, then paused, "... What do you want to know?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about your likes, your dislikes, your dreams for the future, hobbies, things like that." he suggested with a shrug.

"Why don't _you_ introduce yourself first?" asked Zuko, eyes slightly narrowing, "You look pretty suspicious yourself."

"Yeah, your dark blue aura says at least that much," bubbled Ty Lee.

'My what?' he thought raising an eyebrow slightly at Ty Lee's antics. Aloud he said, "Fair enough, my name is Aoba Yamashiro. I like birds, especially ravens and crows, grated yams and yamaimo, and I have a few dislikes that I don't desire to mention right now. I have a few hobbies, including bird watching and mountain climbing, and as for my dreams... I don't exactly have any right now."

"... That's it?" asked Mai with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright, now it's your turn." he said gesturing to Ty Lee, and ignoring Mai's comment, "Let's start with you since you seem so enthusiastic about it."

"Ok sure, hi my name's Ty Lee. I like the circus, acrobatics, animals, and staying positive. I don't like people who used to compare me to my six sisters who are completely identical to me, I also don't like people who make fun or endanger my friends. My hobbies include acrobatics, giving love advice, and just being myself. At the moment, I don't have any dreams right now."

Nodding, Aoba motioned to Zuko to go next, "I'm Zuko, I enjoy swordsmanship, traveling, really good tea, learning, my girlfriend, and people who respect one another. I don't like a lot of things, and I especially hate the one who gave me this," pointing to his giant scar, "my hobbies... I guess firebending and tea making. And my dreams are nonexistent right now."

Mai spoke last, "My name is Mai. I hate lots things, and the only thing I really like is the boy I'm with. I don't really have a lot of hobbies except for maybe learning about different weapons. And I've never really have, nor ever had, any dreams at all."

Aoba nodded, "Alright then. The rules to the test I'm giving you right now are simple." he crossed his fingers and three shadow clones appeared behind him and then pulling out an electric timer, "The goal is for each of you to destroy one of the clones that I created within the next hour. I'll know when you have, so don't worry about telling me. If you are able to catch one, you pass, if you fail to do so, you'll fail."

"Alright," said Zuko, shrugging, "sounds simple enough."

"True," agreed Aoba, "but here's the catch. In order for all of you to completely pass and become an official squad, you each need to succeed in catching one of the clones. If one of you fails, all of you will be returned to the academy for further training."

The three, even Mai, looked at Aoba like he had lost his marbles! "WHAT?!" Ty Lee practically shrieked, "but that's not fair to the people who _did_ get one!"

Aoba simply shrugged, "Well then, I suppose that just gives you another reason to catch one as soon as possible. Now then," the three clones behind him disappeared into the trees as his hand hovered over the timer's start button, "Begin!"

Without hesitation, the three red clad teens rushed toward the forest. When they got to the edge, Zuko grabbed Ty Lee and Mai and hid behind a group of trees.

"Zuko, what are you doing?" asked Mai as she swatted his hands away from her.

"Yeah!" agreed Ty Lee, "The more we wait the less time we'll have to catch them."

"Mai, Ty Lee, _think,_" Zuko chided, "this guy is a jonin, an _elite_ ninja, we're only genin, and even though we may have faced opponents tougher than him, we don't his fighting style or techniques, this sort of stuff is brand new to us. We could just be walking into a trap if we faced them individually head on."

"Just get to the point Zuko," Mai harrumphed.

"What I'm trying to say is, that in order to take each of those clones down, we need to work together."

"But Zuko," argued Ty Lee, "that Aoba guy said that we each need to destroy a clone, meaning we each need to get one!"

"That's true, he did say that," he admitted before smirking slightly, "he said we each need to get a clone, but he never said we had to fight them _alone._"

Ty Lee and Mai's eyes widened in realization, Zuko was right, Aoba never said _how_ they needed to attack the clones, and he simply said that each had to destroy one. If they worked together to at least trap the clones, each of them could then finish them off individually. It didn't matter as long as one of them dealt a finishing blow to each.

"Zuko!" exclaimed the pink-loving acrobat, "You're a genius!"

Zuko smiled slightly at the compliment before putting on his 'serious' face again, "Okay... here's what we're going to do. At first we'll have to attack one individually because I find it unlikely that they'll all be in one place. We'll draw all of them to this very spot, use whatever means necessary. And if you do manage to accidentally kill it, good for you, one less to worry about. Once they're together, first I'll..." Zuko continued to explain his plan of eliminating the Aoba clones, the girls nodding every now and then with understanding.

o~o

About thirty minutes had passed since Aoba had started the timer, and so far he hadn't heard any fighting in the forest in front of him, nor had he gotten any of the memories from the shadow clones he created, meaning that none of them had been taken down yet.

"If they're going to attack, what they waiting for?" he questioned to himself as he gazed into the forest. The jonin got his answer shortly after when a huge column of flame suddenly erupted from the treetops. "Spoke too soon."

Meanwhile in the canopy, Ty Lee was chasing down one of the clones with surprising speed, even the clone was surprised that she was keeping up with him. She jumped from tree trunk to tree trunk like a spider monkey. Using her trajectory, Ty Lee leapt right in front of the clone and punched him hard in the shoulder and knee causing him to tumble to the ground with a limp arm and leg. Ty Lee landed on top of him just as Mai flipped down from another tree, chasing her clone that was attempting to dodge her senbon and knife attacks. The clone responded by throwing a set of kunai at her by jumping behind her, but was thwarted when Zuko leapt in with his dao blades extended, blocking them. Then, catching something in the corner of his eye, he threw one of his swords toward a low hanging branch, snapping it, and watched as the final clone fell to the ground. Before he could recover though, Mai quickly threw two kunai at his sleeves, pinning him to the tree along with the second clone.

With the three clones temporarily incapacitated, Zuko swept his hands in a circle and within moments the clones and Team 12 were surrounded by a ring of fire. Pulling a knife, or sword in Zuko's case, the trio raised them to their throats. Right before slitting them, they noticed the clones smirking at them, which they all returned before plunging them into their windpipes, resulting in respective puffs of smoke.

Back by the alarm, which read about 45 minutes, Aoba blinked as the memories of the clones flowed back to him and smirked. 'Well, well. Lord Hokage wasn't kidding when he said they already had excellent teamwork. They even found a way to work together and not disobey my orders.'

He waited patiently as the trio emerged from the forest with barely a scratch on any of them. They stopped in front of the jonin. "Well," said Zuko, "we did what you said. We each destroyed a clone. Do we pass?"

"As matter of fact you do." Aoba smiled as he pressed the button to stop the timer, "That was pretty impressive, drawing all the clones to one place and taking them together, knowing you couldn't handle them alone. That's smart."

"Well, all of it was pretty much Zuko's idea, me and Mai just went along with it." confessed Ty Lee, rubbing her head.

"Speaking of which," said Mai, "how do you know we took them together? You weren't there watching us were you?"

"No," shaking his head, "but the reason the shadow clone jutsu is such a good jutsu for spying is that once they poof away, you gain all the memories that they had and experienced. That's how I know how the battle went down in the forest."

"Really...? That's so cool!" exclaimed Ty Lee, with sparkly anime eyes, "Will we be able to learn that?"

"Maybe when you reach jonin." explained Aoba, "For now we'll be working on the basic clones and other academy jutsu since all of you are beginners."

"Oh... okay,"

"Hey come on Ty Lee," Zuko said, "It's better than learning nothing at all."

"So we passed your test, can we go now?" asked Mai, bored.

"Indeed you may," said Aoba before going through a flurry of hand seals, "Our first training session starts here at 7:00 tomorrow. Don't be late or it's an extra ten laps around the field. Understood?"

"Yes, Aoba Sensei!" they exclaimed, bowing to their new teacher.

"Very well then, I'll see you tomorrow," he concluded before vanishing into a flock of crows.

The three watched in awe for a moment before Zuko spoke, "You both know what this means right?"

"What Zuko?" asked Mai.

"Yeah, what're you talking about?" Ty Lee cocked her head.

Turning toward the now setting sun he continued, "It means... That starting tomorrow is a brand new life for us; a clean slate and second chance." Turning back to the girls he said holding out his fist, "Let's make a vow, that we won't make the same mistakes as we did in the past."

Both nodding, and Ty Lee flashing a confident smile, they placed their fists on top of Zuko's, "Yeah."

"Alright then, let's get back. The others are probably waiting for us." With that said, the trio walked out of the training ground and back toward their new home, where they would live without fear.

o~o

AN: Well, there's the next chapter that I decided to buckle down and finish for all of you. I hope that Aoba and Zuko weren't too ooc.

As I mentioned last time, if you haven't please check out my profile and answer the poll please. Depending on who you choose will determine how this story proceeds.

Also, I'm trying to think of what Team 12's 'first' mission should be. It'll be one of the filler arcs in the anime. I'm leaning towards the Land of Birds arc but I'm still unsure, please comment and let me know.


	8. Episode 7: Survival Test (Team 9)

Episode 7: Survival Test (Team 9)

Shortly after Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee left, a man with short brown hair and black, almond-shaped eyes greeted the remaining genin. He was wearing a variation of the standard attire of a Leaf ninja, with a flak jacket. The differences between his attire and that of the standard one is that his did not have the red swirled crest on the shoulders of the sleeves, and the neck of his shirt was form fitting and went up to his chin. He also had two hip pouches strapped to his lower back instead of just one. In addition to that, he had a happuri-style forehead protector that framed his face.

"Team 9, please follow me," he announced as he headed for the door, followed by Naruto, Hinata, and Katara. Just like Aoba and Genma, the man led Team 9 to a training field labeled Training Ground 8. There was a view of mountains in the landscape and a large and deep river with forests on both of its sides. There was a glade and in its center were three stumps lined side by side.

"Alright, since we'll likely be working together lets introduce ourselves. My name is Yamato, I like walnuts and reading books on architecture, I dislike a few things, I have a few hobbies like reading and planting trees, and my dream... probably to fight a person I've admired for a long time."

"Really?" asked Katara, curious, "Who?"

Yamato just smiled, "All in good time. Now what about you guys. Let's start with you,"' pointing to Katara.

"Alright. My name's Katara, I like water, the full moon, love my brother, father and mother, and waterbending. My dislikes are the war we were in, the one who took my mom away from me..." she paused, trying to hold back tears, "...and the fact that I'll never see my father again. Hobbies... waterbending and swimming I guess, and I don't know what my dream is anymore."

Hinata and Naruto looked at Katara with sympathy. Both of them, Hinata especially, knew the pain of losing a mother all too well. Her father had never been the same since the day she passed... and neither had she.

Naruto decided to lighten the mood and went next, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, believe it; I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka Sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle Shop, but I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is pulling pranks and eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them... And my future dream... Is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important!"

Hinata and Katara looked at Naruto in admiration at that proclamation. They could tell that Naruto was serious about this dream, even Yamato could tell as he widened his eyes slightly and barely raised an eyebrow.

'Looks like he's grown up in an interesting way.' Yamato thought. He then turned to Hinata, "And finally, you."

"M-my name is H-Hinata H-Hyuga." the heiress began, as she pressed her fingers together shyly, "I-I like s-sweet things, l-like cinnamon buns... and I-I also l-like... w-well," she stuttered glancing at Naruto as she began to turn pink, "I-I don't e-exactly l-like s-seafood very m-much, o-or b-being seen as a n-nuisance. M-my hobbies... I-I d-do enjoy p-pressing flowers i-in my s-spare t-time. A-and m-my d-dream i-is to become a great n-ninja, s-strong l-like my f-father, a-and k-kind like my m-mother."

Yamato nodded, "Alright good, you're all unique with your own strengths and weaknesses." He then walked over to one of the stumps and placed a timer on it. He then took two bells with red string out of his pocket. "Now, this test will be one of the hardest ones will ever have. There is only about fifty percent chance you'll pass. If you want to pass you must attack with the intent to end my life. The goal is simple, you need to take these from me." After giving them a moment to look at the bells when he shook them he continued, "If you noticed, there are only two bells, so that means only two of you can pass. Your time limit is noon, so you have until then to take the bells. Ready?" They all got into attack positions, "Begin!"

Immediately, Katara took a smoke bomb and threw at Yamato's feet, temporarily distracting him. Both the girls then grabbed Naruto before he could charge blindly at the jonin and hid in some bushes a ways away.

"Katara! Hinata! What are you two doing? We need to try and get the bells!"

Katara sighed and tried to explain, "Naruto, running blindly at an opponent that you have absolutely no knowledge about will get you killed in real life. We have to work together to get them."

"A-And besides," Hinata continued, "K-Katara has n-never fought a n-ninja before. I-It would n-not only help her, b-but all of u-us as well if w-we work t-together. W-we need t-to work t-together to g-get the b-bells."

Now it was Naruto's turn to sigh. He knew Katara and Hinata had a point. "Alright then, do either of you have an idea of how to get the bells? Only two can pass after all."

Katara thought for a moment. Coming up with plans was more of Sokka's forte, but she was able to pick up a couple tricks from him here and there through the years. "Well, what's that Yamato guy doing right now?"

"I'm on it," said Hinata, "Byakugan!" Hinata's veins bulged out and her pupils became more visible. "R-Right now h-he's just s-standing by the s-stumps."

"So he doesn't know where we are yet." Katara concluded, fascinated by Hinata's eyes.

"You got a plan Katara?" asked Naruto, eager to move.

"I have an idea that _might_ just work..." Katara pondered aloud. There's no way a jonin would fall for such a simple tactic. But then again what did they have to lose if they tried?

"The first thing we're going to need is a distraction." explained Katara to the other two, "It would roll easier if there were more people though."

Naruto gave a foxy smirk as he cracked his knuckles, "Leave that to me!"

Nodding Katara continued, "Alright, when he's distracted, I need you two to..."

o~o

Yamato leaned against one of the posts as he waited for one of the teens to come at him. Though this was his first year doing this, he had been around genin squads long enough to know that at least one of them would try and attack him right off the bat. 'They haven't attacked yet... Meaning that they are either trying to think of a plan to take me down... Or they're waiting for a chance to attack me when I let my guard down.'

He suddenly caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and caught the kunai that came inches toward his face. Naruto then leapt out of the tree and attempted to land a punch on him, which he blocked. Shifting his weight, Yamato held Naruto by the arm and threw him into the river behind him.

'If they think I'm going to fall for something like that, then they can keep dreaming.' Yamato suddenly sensed something moving in the water. He turned around just in time to see multiple Naruto clones explode from the water.

"HERE WE COME!" they shouted simultaneously.

Recovering quickly Yamato swiftly ducked under the first clone's punch. He then sidestepped two more clones before grabbing the one on his right by the jacket and swinging him into the first clone. As they both dispelled into smoke, a figure charged through toward him. Hinata, with her Byakugan active, swung her hand outward in an attempt to block a chakra point in his arm. Yamato dodged once again as the heiress and the remaining clones got into a fighting stance. The three of them charged him together to try and overwhelm him, not noticing him doing several hand signs of his own.

"Wood Style: Domed Wall!" Out of the ground wooden pillars appeared from the left and right. They then joined together in a dome-shape with the Yamato at the center. The attacks Hinata and the Naruto clones shot at him had barely any effect. "You'll have to do better than that to best me."

Forgetting to check behind him though, Yamato felt something, or someone, grab him, his arms pinned to his side as someone's own arms wrapped around him. It was Naruto, still soaking wet, as he struggled to hold the man in place.

"Good Naruto hold him there!" shouted a voice from the riverside, "Hinata, get out of the way!"

Nodding, the Hyuga heiress leapt back from the wooden dome. Yamato had no idea what was going on at first, but his eyes widened when he saw the wood from his domed shield suddenly shrivel and dry up as water was forcefully pulled out of it to combine with the water in the river. The water was then thrown right back at him as he and Naruto were hit square on, sending both of them sprawling to the ground. The now soaked Yamato then got another surprise he felt the water in his clothing get cold frighteningly fast before freezing and immobilizing him from the shoulders down.

'I see... not bad. The first Naruto was a shadow clone that forced me to attack him so he could get to the water; he then sent another set of clones out with Hinata to attack me until he saw an opening. Then he could catch me and have Katara use the water not only the river, but also the tree roots as well, to freeze and trap me. One of the clones I fought was no doubt the _real_ Naruto. It seems that they already have teamwork down in such a short amount of time already. That strategy could easily have taken down a genin and maybe even some lower-ranked chunin.'

Katara walked out of the bush she was hiding in by the riverside and met with Naruto and Hinata as they stared at Yamato now frozen to the forest floor. "So now all we need are the bells right?" she asked the two who nodded. She was about to thaw the area the bells were kept when Yamato suddenly puffed into smoke. When it cleared all that remained was a log.

Katara looked at the log in shock and confusion as Naruto and Hinata stared, mouths agape.

"A-a substitution jutsu!" Hinata realized as she immediately activated her Byakugan and scanned the area.

Seeing the confused look on Katara's face Naruto explained, "A substitution jutsu is one of the ones we learn in the academy. It basically replaces the body of the victim with some other object, usually a block of wood, right before an attack makes contact.

"So that means he's still around here somewhere!" exclaimed Katara as she and the other two got into defensive positions, their backs facing each other.

"Hinata, any sign of him?" Naruto asked.

"N-no, nothing. I d-don't sense him a-anywhere."

Naruto growled as he they continued to wait. The blonde then caught something in the corner of his eye. He couldn't believe it, it was a bell! Katara and Hinata followed Naruto's finger when he pointed to it before he ran for it.

"Naruto hold on!" shouted Katara, catching Naruto by the arm and leg with a water whip as he came within inches of the bell. "It could be a trap! Hinata."

Hinata used her Byakugan to look at the spot the bell was located. "Naruto, th-there is two snares u-underneath the bell."

"In that case..." He thought aloud as he made another clone to trip the snare, which it did rather comically. "Glad that's not me." he laughed as the clone cut his ankle lose, only to be caught in the second trap the moment he hit the ground.

"OH COME ON!" shouted the clone, flailing around, causing the group to giggle a little at the scene.

"Looks like I underestimated you guys a bit," said a voice in the trees to their side. They looked for the source and saw Yamato on a tree branch and leaning against the trunk. "I have to admit, I am pretty impressed with you three, and that's saying a lot coming from me. To be able to attack me with that team attack, trap me in that ice prison, and even find a way to use my wood style against me to a degree. You almost had me. That would have easily beaten a genin and maybe even a chunin. So, since I'm feeling nice," he tossed the other bell to the ground, "you can have the bells."

'But now what are you going to do?' Yamato thought. This was where the real test came in. Would they truly work like a team, or was that just a one-time gimmick.

The trio looked at him confused. Katara narrowed her eyes, "Alright, what's the catch?"

Yamato chuckled a little, "Well, like I told you before, only two of you can pass. So now you need to decide... who's going to fail?"

The group was silent for a moment before Katara spoke, "Alright I'll stay... you two go. I literally just got here so it only makes sense."

"N-no Katara!" Hinata protested, "Y-you're the one that th-thought of the p-plan to trap him. I-I barely d-did anything. I-I'll stay."

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed, getting the girls' attention before he turned back to Yamato. "Sorry Yamato Sensei, but if you fail one of us you fail all of us! There's no way we're leaving someone behind."

Yamato raised an eyebrow at this proclamation, before smirking, "Alright then... the result of this exercise is... you all pass."

The trio looked at him like he just transformed into a platypus-bear. "HUH?!"

Katara recovered first and glared daggers at the jonin. "What is this? Some kind of joke?! You said that only two people could pass!"

"Yeah... well I lied about that." he explained only to earn glares from the group, "You see, I was testing you... to see if you would put the squad in front of yourself or vice versa. When Naruto told me that they were going to stick together that was the moment you passed the test... The three of you are thinking like a team, which is exactly what we ninja do in missions. True, you need individual skills, but teamwork is what it comes down to in the end, or else the mission could fail, or worse, one or all of you could die. A person I admire once said this to me: "A ninja who breaks the rules is considered scum... but those who abandon their comrades and friends... are even worse than scum."

The trio stared at Yamato in awe. Whoever this person he was talking about must truly care about his friends deeply to say that.

"Well done, Team 9 is now officially a genin squad. We begin our training session here tomorrow at 7:00, I'll see you then." he concluded before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

o~o

AN: So that wraps up the 'Survival Test' Arc. Next chapter will be when they each go on their first missions. Not telling where who's going where though, but keep your eyes peeled for next chapter in coming weeks hopefully.

Team 9: R&amp;R Please!


	9. Episode 8: The Boy with a Star's Name

Episode 8: Encounter! The Boy with a Star's Name

It had been about three weeks since the Gaang's survival tests. If they weren't going on small D-ranked missions, which at the moment included weeding gardens, walking dogs, and even finding and catching other lost pets, their training schedule usually didn't change much from day to day, taking weekends off to do their own thing.

They would start at 7:00 with about ten or so laps around their enclosed training spaces, then be led through a series of stretches which varied from basic toe touches to bends and maneuvers that could have been mistaken as a form of yoga. They would then conclude with a few ten counts of push-ups or sit ups and another ten laps as a cool down.

After that was a martial arts session. Though some of them, like Suki, claimed that they already knew how to perform martial arts, they eventually agreed that even though their own style would give them an edge in battle, it would help if they knew the fighting style of their enemies as well. Naruto and Hinata in Team 9 even decided to do Katara's 'catching up' training with her since even they admitted that some of their taijutsu was a little rusty as well. They would be lead through the most basic taijutsu katas. Each kata was a bit awkward, even for Ty Lee, at first, and the sensei would have to make small corrections to their elbow angles or feet positions. They would assume each kata several times perfectly in a row so that they could be committed to muscle memory in battle. They were told that once they had the basics down smoothly, they could then start sparing.

After that it was usually lunch, and then they were lead through an exercise on chakra control called the Leaf Concentration Exercise, in which their sensei would have a leaf put on their forehead and have them direct all their chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point to try and keep it on with solely that. Katara, Toph, and Zuko were able to get it within three days, probably thanks to the chakra control they already unknowingly used when they bended their elements, and the rest were able to succeed by the end of the first week.

They would end the physical training with several more laps and stretches, at a slower pace of course, to cool off. They would then finish completely after an evening lecture, which would vary from chakra theory, to history, to other subjects pertaining to the ninja life. They would then be quizzed on what they had learned not only in the lecture, but through the day as well as on their hand seals.

The routine remained constant until they were all able to learn to not only keep their leaf stuck to their forehead, but also learn to levitate the leaf just over their hand with chakra alone. The week previous they had just began learning how to walk up trees with chakra as well, and all of them achieved it by the fourth or fifth day of practicing.

Upon seeing the improvement in their ninja skills to almost a graduate's level, Genma, Aoba, and Yamato decided that it was about time that they tested their teams out on a C-Ranked mission.

"My team has improved dramatically these past few weeks, so I'd like to try my luck on a C-Ranked mission Lord Third." Genma said one morning as they approached the Mission Assignment Desk. What he failed to mention was that Toph was getting tired of doing 'busy work' missions and wanted some real action like they used to have. Though what he said was true, for the squad had been getting stronger in their teamwork and chakra manipulation. A few days ago he had shown them the very first three jutsu that all academy students learn: The Escape Jutsu, the Basic Clone Jutsu, and the Transformation Jutsu. He had even gone as far as to start teaching Toph how to read and write by feeling out the kanjis on paper, books, and other documents despite her disability, which made Toph very happy!

The Third Hokage thought for a moment before he got a grand idea. "I believe I know the perfect mission for your squad Genma. I already assigned a team to it, but I believe this mission may require a back up squad as a precaution."

"That so?" asked Genma, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed, I'll send them a message informing them that you will be assisting them. I don't believe they have left yet, so you simply need to meet them at the Northern Gate. They'll explain the mission to you when you arrive."

"Yes Lord Hokage." Genma bowed, followed by the other three.

"OH YEAH!" exclaimed Toph, "Finally some action!" Sokka and Suki snickered at Toph's antics.

"Just like the good old days." said Sokka as they exited.

o~o

After making a quick pit stop at their apartments to pack, and in Sokka's case leave a quick note for Katara on his whereabouts, the trio met Genma at the gate. They were pleasantly surprised to see that the Team that they were accompanying was Team 8, Kurenai's Squad.

"Hey!" said Kiba when he saw and recognized the trio and Genma, "you're three of those foreign kids that Iruka Sensei introduced to us a few weeks ago!"

"Yep, that's us!" said Sokka with a grin, "Just me, Suki, and Toph here."

"Well, it's a pleasure to officially meet you finally," Kurenai smiled, "I can see that you already know Kiba and Akamaru, and this is Shino and Tatsu." Shino nodded to the group in greeting while Tatsu barely even glanced at them, wearing her all too familiar frown.

"Kurenai Sensei, why do we need an extra team on this mission anyway? I mean, it's supposed to be a simple security mission right?" asked Tatsu. She honestly didn't see the need to include an extra four-man squad on this mission.

"Lord Hokage said it was as a precaution Tatsu." Kurenai explained to her, "Apparently, from what the mission's description said, there could be some trouble."

"What_ is_ the mission objective Kurenai?" Genma asked, "Lord Hokage said you'd explain when we got here."

"Well Genma," she addressed to him, "I'm sure you at least _heard _of it: The Village Hidden in the Stars?"

"The Star Village?" asked Genma, mildly surprised. The Hidden Star Village rarely asked for outside assistance from other villages. For them to call on assistance now meant...

"What's in the Hidden Star Village?" asked Suki.

"Well, the Star Village is a relatively small village," explained Kurenai, "but they are also a proud people, and unfortunately caused a lot of headaches in the past."

"Hmm..." hummed Toph, "cheery."

"Okay, but what makes this village so special?" asked Sokka.

Kurenai looked the Water Tribe Warrior, "The village is said to have something... very special."

Before Kurenai could continue, Kiba interrupted, "But I thought the Star Village was a full on shinobi village. Why do they need our help? Can't they use their own ninja to handle security?"

"That's true Kiba they are a shinobi village," nodded Genma, his senbon dancing in his lips as he spoke, "but sometimes smaller villages will strengthen relations by coordinating with its allies militarily. And this case, since their village is smaller than most, they probably don't have enough ninja to protect it."

"That makes sense," said Tatsu, "but why would a village that tiny be attacked?"

"I have a theory why..." said Kurenai, "It all started 200 years ago... When a shooting star hit the village..."

Kiba balked, Suki, Tatsu, Toph, and Sokka went wide-eyed, and Shino remained as emotionless as ever.

"Wait! You mean like a star in the sky?" asked Kiba in shock, "Not a throwing star right?"

"That's how its said to have happened." Genma clarified, "And according to legend, the star holds a mysterious power that can affect chakra."

After a few brief seconds of awkward silence, Kiba burst into a fit of laughter, "Hahaha! That's ridiculous! First of all there's no way that a star just drops out of the sky and hits the Earth!"

"Actually Kiba, you're mistaken." said Sokka, earning a stupefied look from the dog ninja, "Before we came to the village, me, Toph, my sister Katara, and another friend of ours saw the exact same thing happen somewhere else. We were watching a meteor shower and one of them landed only about 2 miles away from where we were camping. After we put out the fire it caused, I eventually used what remained of the meteorite to forge my very first Jian sword. So logically speaking, it probably wasn't exactly a star that hit the village but very likely a meteorite similar to the one we saw."

"That would make sense," said Shino, speaking for the first time, "after all, all a star really is a big ball of hot air in the middle space. I find it unlikely that our planet would even still exist if an actual star hit it."

"Finally!" Sokka exclaimed, "someone who actually agrees with me on logic!" 

"Well Snoozles," said Toph, "technically, you, Sugar Queen, and Twinkle Toes saw the meteorite, not me."

"You didn't?" asked Tatsu, "Why not? Were you somewhere else when it happened?"

Now it was Toph's turn to balk, "You're kidding right?"

"What?" asked Kiba cluelessly.

"I'M BLIND!" exclaimed Toph, as she waved her hand in front of her face.

Tatsu and Kiba's jaws may as well have hit the ground. Toph was blind, and yet still seemed qualified to be a shinobi?

"YOU'RE BLIND?!" they asked in perfect sync, and Akamaru barked in equal shock.

Toph slapped her forehead as Shino sighed and asked, "It took you two that long to realize it?"

"Wait, you knew she was blind the entire time?!" Kiba asked Shino.

"Yes," he answered simply, "if the two of you weren't so oblivious you may have noticed as well."

"Wait a second," said Tatsu, "If you're blind, how did Lord Hokage still let you become a ninja?"

Toph sighed before giving her usual explanation, "Well you see, even though I was born blind, I actually don't have any trouble seeing. The way I see is through the Earth. I usually feel for vibrations in the ground and use them as my 'eyes'. So I can see you, Genma and Kurenai Sensei, and even that anthill over there."

Team 8 turned toward where Toph was pointing, and they were shocked to see that there indeed was a small anthill on the side of the road with red ants climbing into it.

"Whoa! That's really cool." exclaimed Kiba, "If all shinobi could do that, it would absolutely impossible to ambush anyone."

"Alright, I've think we've had enough time to talk and get familiar with each other." said Genma, "We should get to the Hidden Star Village in the Land of Bears as soon as we can."

"Yes sensei!" they all said in unison.

"Alright then, let's move." Kurenai said before the eight of them leapt out of the gate and into the forest.

o~o

After traveling for about a day and a half, the group finally reached the outskirts of the Hidden Star Village in the Land of Bears. The Land of Bears was a heavily forested country much like the Land of Fire. The Hidden Star Village was located in the middle of the country and was surrounded by a canyon filled with poisonous gas called the Valley of Death. The canyon was used to act like a natural barrier to prevent raids on the village.

The group landed just a few feet from the canyon's edge, and they immediately saw that there was no way across and it was too far to jump, even for ordinary ninja.

"I can get us across," said Toph, "how far is the other side?"

"From the looks of it about 20 meters acro-" before Sokka could finish, Toph stomped the ground and a rock slab catapulted the now surprised group straight across and cleared it by an extra 2 meters!

"A little warning next time Toph?" Suki berated the Earthbender as she simply shrugged.

"What the- what the hell did you just do?!" asked Kiba as he dusted himself off and looked at Toph wide-eyed. Akamaru barked in agreement.

"It's my... special ability I guess you could say. It's called earthbending. I don't need hand seals to do it either. I simply control the earth through my own will power. Oh, and you're welcome!" said Toph, after briefly explaining. Before any more questions could be asked though, a volley of arrows flew toward the group. Having seen the attack, Sokka pulled out his boomerang and threw it toward the projectiles, slicing them in half.

The assailant burst through the trees landing in front of the group. His face was hidden behind a gas mask but he was wearing a lavender shirt with a purple scarf around his neck, and tan pants with black ninja shoes and long fingerless gloves that reached past his elbows.

Believing he may be an enemy, Kiba and Suki, threw several kunai in his direction while Sokka threw his boomerang once again.

The assailant responded by making the Bird hand seal, "Ninja Art: Kujaku, Protection!" Suddenly, pinkish purple peacock-like feathers made of chakra sprouted behind the boy and sprung out to deflect the kunai and boomerang.

"Jerk!" shouted Toph, as she once again stomped the ground and sent rock after rock at the ninja.

"Destroy!" he responded as the peacock wings suddenly spread and nailed each of the rocks like a pike, obliterating them. He then took out several kunai of his own and launched them at the group. To stop them, Tatsu leaped in front of the kunais' path, and as they hit her, they didn't embed themselves into her, but bounced right off as if they hit a steel wall!

Before the fighting could go on any longer, Genma and Kurenai jumped in between them.

"Guys stop it!" ordered Genma.

"But sensei, this guy attacked us out of the blue!" argued Sokka, but then noticed that the attacker had stopped his jutsu all together and the colored peacock feathers disappeared.

"Oh, you're all Leaf ninja. My apologies." The attacker took off his gas mask to reveal a boy with short smooth black hair that kind of curled around his head and parts of his headband. He also has reddish-brown eyes and was wearing a blue Hidden Star Village headband around his forehead.

"Wait," said Suki, "you're a Hidden Star Ninja?"

"I'm Sumaru, I came to pick you all up." he explained, "I was supposed to help you get across the canyon as well, but it looks like it wasn't necessary."

"Pleasure to meet you Sumaru, I'm Kurenai Yuhi, and this is Genma Shiranui. And these are our students, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Tatsu, Toph Bei Fong, Suki, and Sokka."

Sumaru nodded before he turned back the way he came. "Let's go, the Hidden Star Village is this way."

Along the way, the Team couldn't help but stare at Tatsu in awe. The kunai that she threw herself in front should have killed her, but they didn't.

"Hey, what was that you did back there? The kunai bounced off of you instead of hurting you. What was that all about?" asked Suki.

Tatsu looked at the Kyoshi Warrior with irritation before sighing, "Well, you'd find out one way or another. To put it simply it's my Kekkei Genkai. It's called the Muteki Jinshin. My Kekkei Genkai allows me to be invulnerable to many types of attacks, including Taijutsu and Ninjutsu." Before she could continue though, a small rush of pain rippled through her, making her cringe, but it wasn't enough to make her collapse.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Toph, feeling her heartbeat change slightly, "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry this always happens." Tatsu waved off as she slowly straightened up as the pain faded.

"Hey, I think I get it!" exclaimed Sokka. He had remembered one of the evening lectures that Genma had given them about a week ago about Kekkei Genkai, also known as Blood Line techniques, which were jutsu that couldn't be copied or taught to anyone, and could only be used by people who were born with it. Genma had used Toph's earthbending as an example of this, since she was born an earthbender while others weren't. The three girls looked at him confused, and seeing this he elaborated, "Just because you're invulnerable to most attacks with that Kekkei Genkai on, when you _de_activate it, you probably experience the pain of the attacks shortly after right? That's why you cringed."

Tatsu looked at him in shock. He was able to figure all that out with one encounter of seeing it? Who was this guy? "Yeah," she said after reluctantly nodding, "exactly."

"... Sweetness." Toph said after a pause before she busted out laughing.

o~o

After about an hour of more traveling, the group finally reached the Hidden Star Village. At the center of the village was a small three-storied mansion, the Hoshikage's residence. On the front of the building was a sign with the kanji for 'Star' on the front. Inside the room they entered a man of pale tone, a thin and bony face, blue eyes, a narrow nose, lilac-colored hair with a ponytail, and a blue forehead protector was waiting for them.

After they all knelt in front of the man, he addressed them, "I'm Akahoshi, and I serve as deputy Hoshikage of this village."

"Deputy?" Shino questioned, "But that means..."

"The Third Hoshikage passed on quite suddenly a year ago. So at present, the village finds itself without a true leader."

Toph felt Akahoshi's heartbeat change only slightly when he mentioned that the Hoshikage passed 'suddenly'. She made a mental note to be wary of this Akahoshi guy until she got more information. Whenever a person she just met lies to them right off the bat, her first instinct was to keep her guard up around them.

"Wait," said Tatsu, "but I thought only leaders of the Five Great Hidden Villages could be called 'kage'."

"Yeah, what's that about?" asked Toph.

"That makes no difference!" retorted Sumaru, grabbing the Leaf ninja's attention. "The people of this village are inferior to no one! We may be small, but someday, this village will rival those of the Five Great Lands, and when that day comes, _I _will be Hoshikage!"

"Be quiet." Akahoshi ordered, "Return to your training at once!" At the order, Sumaru turned and left the room, not even bothering to glance back at the Leaf ninja. After he exited the room, Akahoshi sighed, "I apologize for that, now where was I? Oh yes. As you correctly pointed out, the shinobi of our land are not qualified to even have a kage. However, we posses a star that the kages of the Five Great Hidden Villages covet. Someday, we'll harness the power of the star and our village will at last be able to seat a sixth Kage."

"So what you're saying is, is that your enemies have been trying to get that star." Genma clarified.

"That's right, our scouting teams managed to get some useful intelligence..."

o~o

After discussing the information regarding their mission with Akahoshi, Teams 8 and 11 headed out to get familiar with the Hidden Star Village. Toph didn't tell any of them that she had felt Akahoshi lie to them about the Hoshikage's death because she knew that there was a possibility that he himself didn't know how the Hoshikage died and didn't know how to explain the loss to them. But if she sensed him lying to them again, she wouldn't hesitate to point it out.

As Sokka, Suki, and Toph looked around the village, the trio spotted Sumaru walking up a flight of stairs towards where they assumed was where his training took place. Having wanted to ask him about that weird jutsu he used when they first encountered him, the three sprinted to catch up to him.

"Hey wait up!" Suki called. Sumaru paused as Sokka, Suki, and Toph finally caught up to him, panting, "Whew, finally caught up! Sumaru right?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"Nothing," Sokka shrugged as he continued to follow him up the path. "That's just a pretty interesting name, that's all."

"Well, it's derived from the star cluster Subaru or the Pleiades. In fact, everyone in our village has a name that's associated with a certain star... After all, this is where a star fell."

"Oh that's pretty cool." Toph said, interested in the topic. 'I wonder what mine name would be if _I_ were named after a star.'

"What do you three want from me anyway?" Sumaru asked suddenly, sending a slight glare of suspicion at them.

"Oh," Suki was slightly surprised by Sumaru's change in attitude all of a sudden, "nothing in particular. We just thought we'd get to know a few people from the village, you know?"

"Don't try to act nice with me." Sumaru scoffed, "Foreigners are all the same, they're all trying to get to our star. They think if they get its power they can rise above the other Hidden Villages."

"Oh, you mean that chakra of yours is fueled by the power of the star too?" asked Sokka, "I mean, if someone else had the star, wouldn't they have the same chakra as you do?"

"No!" Sumaru snapped, turning to fully face the warrior, "The more power you draw from it, the more hard work and skill you need to control it." Before any of them could interrupt he continued, "And that's what I'm going to do! Nothing but hard work! I _will _become the Hoshikage!"

Toph smiled, admiring his determination, "Well good for you!"

Sumaru looked taken aback from Toph's reaction, and then noticed that the other two looked just as impressed, "You know, you three are kinda weird."

"Yeah, we know." The Blind Bandit said before bursting into a fit of laughter with Sokka and Suki.

o~o

At another part of the village near the edge was a humongous crater with dead tree stumps scattered this way and that. At the center of the crater was a couple of buildings, one where the star was kept and another that acted as the living quarters for the children who trained there. On the side of the crater, peaking through some rubble was another masked ninja, whose eyes were glued to the center building and room where the star was kept. At the speed no one could register, the ninja flashed past debris and soon found itself at the entrance of the building.

Inside the building, the children were meditating in front of the star in the middle of their 'star training' session. No one noticed the ninja enter the room until it was nearly too late.

"Intruder!" yelled one of the girls as she brandished a kunai like the other students, "Guard the star!" The intruder however seemed unfazed by the number of genin in the room. She gave a smirk under the mask.

o~o

Sumaru, Toph, Suki, and Sokka finally made their way down to the crater where the star first made impact.

"Whoa! You're right!" said Suki, surveying their surroundings, "The tree trunks all fell outwards from the center of the crater."

"Well when a meteorite impacts like this it's exactly the pattern you'd expect. The same way we saw _our _meteorite." explained Sokka.

The young star ninja looked at Sokka annoyed, "That's _star_ to you! You may call it a meteorite, but it's a star to us!" He then pointed to the building at the center of the crater. "Over there is our training area, where the star's enshrined."

Toph felt a bunch of vibrations coming from the training hall, it sounded like there was a battle going on. She shrugged it off though, thinking that the other star ninja inside were just having a sparring match.

"Alright then, let's go!" exclaimed Sokka, "we're dying to see it!"

To their surprise, Sumaru answered, "Never! No one from a foreign land is allowed beyond this point."

Suki gritted her teeth and stomped the ground. "But don't you know that the reason that we're here is _because _of the star? That's the whole point of the mission! How do you expect us to protect it if we can't even get close to it!?"

"I could." said Toph with a raised hand.

"You're not helping Toph!" Sokka snapped.

"You're foreigners, we can't just leave you with something so sacred."

"Okay, my first review of you guys and this village is that you are completely paranoid! You hire us for a security mission but you still won't trust us?! You're worse than the Dai Li in Ba Sing Se!" Toph ranted.

"Well, we are who are." Sumaru sneered as the four shinobi stared at each other for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. The contest was cut short though when they heard a shuffle coming from the building. Turning to see what it was, they saw the masked ninja who entered the building early running off with something clutched in its hands. It was the star!

"What was that?" asked Sumaru in shock, "The star!"

Before Sumaru could say anything else, Sokka drew his boomerang out of its holster and threw at the ninja. The ninja sensed it coming and dodged it at the last second, only for it to come flying right back in the other direction, but the ninja regained its composure and dodged it again. Sokka growled as he caught the boomerang in his hand. "We'll go after him, you check on your friends!" when he saw Sumaru hesitate he grabbed the boy by the shoulders, "Look there's no time to hesitate okay?!"

Sumaru finally nodded after a few seconds, "Right, we'll have to split up!" Sumaru raced toward the training hall as Sokka, Suki, and Toph gave chase to the masked ninja. Sumaru gasped as he reached the door to see his fellow trainees lying hurt and unconscious on the floor. He immediately ran to one of the girls, who was his best friend.

"Hokato!" seeing that she was unconscious, Sumaru focused his chakra and tapped Hokato's forehead with his chakra infused finger. Hokato opened her eyes with a groan.

"Sumaru!" she sighed with relief, "I'm sorry, we couldn't protect it!" Sumaru nodded in understanding, but then gasped as he remembered that Sokka, Suki, and Toph were chasing the ninja. If that thief had the star then-!

o~o

Toph, with Sokka and Suki in tow, earth-skied up the crater as fast as she could with the thief not too far ahead of her. Reaching into her side holster, Suki drew three kunai and used a jutsu Genma had shown them to launch them at the masked thief. The thief evaded the knives by jumping over them and back flipped on top of a dead tree branch and stared down at the trio.

"I hope you weren't stupid enough to think you could just steal something from this village in the middle of the day and get away with it!" Sokka yelled up, but the thief seemed unfazed by the threat. Sokka and Suki quickly did the Ram, Snake, Tiger sequence and six clones of both of them appeared at their side. "Don't think you can get away!"

The ninja calmly stored the star in the inside of her jacket before weaving her hands in a very familiar hand sign. Sokka recognized it as the same hand seal that Sumaru used when they first met him. 'Wait that's!'

"Ninja Art: Kujaku!" Just as Sumaru did, huge wing like chakra strands shot out of the thief's back, but they were way bigger than Sumaru's was... by a lot! "Beast!" The chakra suddenly swirled into a spiral and transformed into a badger like monster that charged at the trio and their clones. With a swipe of its paws, it obliterated three of them.

"Dang it!" Sokka yelled as he pulled out some shuriken. 'We can't let this guy escape!' he thought as he signaled to Toph and Suki to attack, he and Suki threw shuriken after shuriken while Toph earthbended boulders and rocks at the assailant. Since most were illusionary from the clones, they just passed right through the chakra, but when the attacks made impact, they simply bounced off like they hit a brick wall. Even Toph's rocks weren't making a mark.

"It's futile," the thief told them, looking at the trio through the mask with almost pity.

Toph growled and stomped the ground and threw her fists up. From right under the tree, an Earth column had risen, and moments later, the ninja was trapped in the Earth prison pillar and was struggling to escape. Sensing that the target was hit Toph smirked. "Looks like your little trick has a weakness after all, and I just found it!"

"Wait to go Toph!" cheered Suki at the earthbender's smart move.

"Toph hit him now! He can't move when he's controlling a jutsu!" ordered Sokka.

"Yeah, yeah, don't pee yourself Snoozles!" Toph shot back as she stomped the ground once more and this time catapulted herself at the ninja.

Seeing Toph coming, the ninja smirked, "I can use my chakra in more than one way." To prove her point, some the chakra surrounding the ninja suddenly shot at the Blind Bandit. Since she couldn't see it because she was blind, Toph was shocked when something suddenly slammed into her very hard and shot back almost all the way back to the Star Training hall, sliding along the ground, leaving a trail in the earth behind her.

"TOPH!" Suki and Sokka cried, seeing her being shot down. Turning back at the enemy ninja, they saw that there were now two chakra beasts now!

Toph groaned as she picked herself up. "Man, that guy could hit _hard!" _she said, clutching her slightly throbbing head.

"Monkey feathers!" muttered Sokka, "What do we do?"

Before he could think of anything else though, the ninja made the Bird hand sign again. "Synthesis!" At the command, both the badger chakra monsters joined together, making an even bigger one that charged at the trio. The three stood there frozen in place from shock, they'd never seen anything like this before, not even 1,500 years ago!

"Sokka! Toph! Suki!" shouted voice from behind them as they braced for impact. Looking back, they saw Sumaru rushing to their aid.

What happened next confused all of them. The mysterious ninja gasped and stopped the giant beast attack just millimeters from Sokka's face. After the chakra shrank back into her back, she made the same hand sign and exclaimed, "Wings!" The chakra extended outward to form two huge wingspans that flapped in the wind. The ninja took off from her trunk and into the air.

"What?! You can fly too?!" Sokka shouted as he gave the ninja look that said 'Are you freaking kidding me?' (Think of when the serpent appears on the Fire Nation ship). Before the four of them could stop him, the thief shot like a rocket ship and flew across the poisonous canyon and out of their close reach.

"No you don't!" shouted Toph, as she suddenly started swinging her arms in the direction of the thief, shooting a boulder blindly into the sky with each swing. It was no use though; the thief was too far away.

Cursing under his breath, Sumaru finally caught up to them. "He's gone!"

"We almost had him!" Suki said through gritted teeth, "but then he-"

"It's my fault for agreeing to let you three try!" Sumaru interrupted with a look of disdain.

Sokka glared at him but quickly brushed it off. "This is crazy! That ninja used the exact same ninja art as _you!_"

Sumaru gasped at this revelation. That was impossible. Only shinobi from the Hidden Star Village knew Ninja Art: Kujaku. No outsider has ever done it. If _that_ ninja did though... then that meant-

His thoughts were interrupted with Sokka still staring him down. "What's going on here...? Really?"

"And stick to the truth!" Toph added, "I'll be able to tell if you're lying!"

Sumaru closed his eyes and looked downward. Sokka recognized that look. It was the look Katara had when Zuko betrayed them in Ba Sing Se, and the one she had when their father first left to fight in the war. It was a look of hurt and betrayal. "That ninja art... only a star trained ninja could know it."

"You mean that guy who tried to tear us to shreds with his chakra beast was from the Village Hidden in the Stars!" Sokka shocked. He understood why Sumaru must feel this way. A ninja from his village had betrayed them all.

Sumaru gritted his teeth. He finally said "...I can't be sure."

o~o

For all you readers in case you were wondering, Muteki Jinshin means invincible body. So I hoped you like seeing Tatsu a little bit in action.

BTW: I still need more votes for my poll, so please spread the word about it. It will stay open until after the Chunin Exam. Thanks!

Sokka and Sumaru: R &amp; R please!


	10. Episode 9: The Remembered Lullaby

Episode 9: The Remembered Lullaby

Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Sumaru gazed in the direction that the mysterious ninja had taken the star. They couldn't believe that someone could get away with it in broad daylight! Their thoughts were cut short though as they heard footsteps running toward them. Turning to the source, the four saw Genma, Kurenai and the rest of Team 8 running toward them. Having sensed their rushed footsteps long before the others, Toph said, pointing in the opposite direction, "Here come Genma Sensei and the others!"

"Sokka! Toph! Suki!" Genma called right on cue as they turned around with Sumaru to face them.

"We heard a distress call from the training room," Kurenai explained promptly, "what in the world happened?"

"It's anything but good," Sokka in shame, "the star was stolen."

"What?!" shouted Tatsu in anger, "how could you let him escape with the thing we're supposed to guard?!"

"Her."

"What?" everyone asked in unison, turning to the blind bandit who simply had her arms crossed.

"You heard me, the ninja that took off with it was a 'her' not a 'him'."

"Wait," Sumaru said, "how do you know that?"

Huffing in annoyance, Toph explained, "As you already known like the others do Sumaru, I'm blind, so I don't 'see' the way any of you do. I use the earth around me to see where I'm going and what's happening around me. I've developed the skill so well that not only can I pick up if someone's lying through their heartbeat, but also what the gender of the person is. Male heart rates normally are slower than a female, and compared to what I usually feel from Genma Sensei and the other males of our village, this ninja's heartbeat was _way _faster. Not only that, but even though the voice was muffled from the mask, the ninja's voice was still too high to belong to a full grown male."

'Now that I think about though,' Toph thought to herself, 'almost everyone in this village has unusually fast heart rates, both male _and_ female. Is a genetic thing?'

"I see," said Genma, "thanks for alerting us of this Toph." thanked Genma. He turned his attention back to the other three, "Anyways, what happened, how did she escape so easily?"

"It was incredible Genma Sensei," Suki exclaimed, "The ninja that attacked flew off with the star using chakra somehow!"

"Yeah, she was all like, _whoosh!" _Sokka exclaimed moving his arms outward as if he was surfing on an air glider, "And bam, she was gone!"

"What? You actually saw that?" Kiba questioned in astonishment, Akamaru yipped in equal shock.

"Okay..." Tatsu said in a skeptical tone, "But shinobi can't fly... Not that I know of anyway."

"Well we're telling you we saw it with our own eyes!" Suki said trying to convince them.

"Shino." Kurenai said. Nodding the Aburame held out his hands and winged beetles began to emerge from under his clothing and fan out around the area. Suki and Sokka stepped back a bit a little surprised and disgusted to see bugs crawling out from a person's body. After a few minutes, the bugs returned and one perched itself on Shino's finger. They couldn't tell how, but it was obvious that the two were communicating somehow.

"My insects lost her," Shino confirmed with narrowed eyes under his glasses, "She was too far out of range. But Team 11 was indeed correct."

"Using chakra to take to the air?" asked Genma in astonishment, his senbon nearly falling from his mouth from shock, "She must be very powerful then."

"Huh, so it was true after all." Tatsu muttered in slight surprise. The group suddenly heard a crash on the ground and saw that Toph had stomped a hole in the ground.

Pulling it out with a grunt the blind bandit turned on the Muteki Jinshin user, "What are you saying, you didn't believe us supergirl?!" she accused.

"Pretty much," Tatsu shrugged. Then suddenly something clicked in her head making her freeze, "Wait a second, what did you just call me?!"

"Supergirl, why?"

"Well don't!" she shouted back.

"I'll call you whatever I want!"

As the two girls kept bickering in front of the others, Sumaru could only look on in suspicion. Who was that kunoichi? And if she was from the village... why did she take the star?

o~o

Back at the Hoshikage's residence, Sumaru and the rest of the group explained what had happened near the training hall. To put it simply, Akahoshi didn't take the news very well at all.

"What?!" he exclaimed when he heard the news, "Someone made off with the star?!"

"Yes," Sumaru confirmed, bowing his head in shame, "there were people training there when it happened. But the enemy knocked them out with some sort of jutsu."

Akahoshi's fist slammed onto the wooden floor in outrage. "THAT'S PATHETIC!" he shouted, his eyes contorted in anger.

Sumaru cringed backward slightly, fearing of facing Akahoshi's wrath. However, a certain water tribe warrior that moved forward to defend him saved the young star ninja. "You wouldn't be saying that if you saw the chakra this chick was throwing around!"

"Was the kunoichi really that dangerous than?" asked Kiba in shock.

"Yeah," confirmed Suki, "she was forming wings and beasts out of chakra, we've never seen anything like it!"

Akahoshi's eyes widen and softly gasped. If it was the kunoichi that he thought it was... he narrowed his eyes. "Is this true, Sumaru?"

"Yes." the young star ninja answered immediately, "Ninja Art: Kujaku, no question about it."

'There is again.' Toph thought to herself as Akahoshi's heartbeat changed again, this time quite a bit. And if she had been able to see, she would've also immediately noticed Akahoshi narrow his eyes in a way that would show he was hiding something. Genma, Kurenai, Shino, and even Sokka noticed as well. They all definitely knew now that Akahoshi hadn't told them everything that was happening around the village. They would have to keep an eye on him.

"The same one you used against us when we first arrived?" asked Tatsu, specifically Sumaru, "That's a jutsu unique to the Village Hidden in the Stars right?"

"Yeah," Sumaru glanced at the black clad kunoichi, "and only those who master the full star training-"

"Sumaru!" Akahoshi, who had his arms folded and a scowl on his face interrupted.

"Tatsu," Kurenai slightly scolded, "this village has a right to their own secrets. You should know better. Especially in regards to a jutsu that is part of their heritage."

Tatsu sighed and said in a monotone voice that would rival Mai's "Right, I beg your pardon."

"Please my lord!" Sumaru suddenly exclaimed, "Just give me the order! Responsibility for the theft of the star rests with me alone!"

"Are you crazy?" Kiba looked at Sumaru like he grew an extra head, "If Sokka, Suki, and Toph couldn't handle that kunoichi what shot do you think you'd have?!"

"A much better shot than you guys I'm sure." the star ninja shot back.

"No." Everyone turned to the voice's source and saw that Genma had spoken for the first time since they returned to the Hoshikage building, "Our mission was to protect it _for _you, and we let it slip through our fingers. We are to share in the blame."

"Lord Akahoshi," Kurenai addressed, "I ask that you leave this to us. We will retrieve the star, you may rest assured."

"Very well." the said lord replied, "We shall leave the search to the shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. Sumaru, you keep an eye on all of your injured brethren."

"But they're outsiders!" Sumaru argued vigorously, "What do they know of our ways?!"

"THAT'S AN ORDER!" Akahoshi thundered through gritted teeth and narrowed crystal blue eyes. Sumaru gasped at the lord's tone, and reluctantly accepted the orders while gritting his teeth.

o~o

Shortly afterwards, the group trudged out of the Hoshikage building, preparing to plan their next move. Sumaru was in the back when Kiba turned toward him and asked, "Hey, are those friends of yours, that got knocked out, going to be alright?" Akamaru barked at the star ninja as if to ask the same thing.

Sumaru narrowed his eyes and glared at the dog ninja. "Don't worry about it okay?" he snapped. Everyone, including Kurenai and Genma, raised an eyebrow at Sumaru's attitude. What was_ his_ problem? "You're outsiders, it's none of your concern. Now quit acting like we're friends." He then stalked off back to the training area with his nose up in a pompous gesture.

'What's with him?' Toph, Suki, and Sokka thought simultaneously.

"Talk about being a real piece of work." said Toph in irritation as she felt Sumaru's footsteps slowly fade.

"Kurenai Sensei," Tatsu suddenly whined, "we get that you're trying to go by the books and all, but the only one's that were there were these three nitwits." she pointed at Team 11's genin.

"Hey!" cried Toph as she made a move to tackle her, "Who you calling a nitwit Supergirl?!"

"AND STOP CALLING THAT!" Tatsu exploded at Toph with a snarl. Both the girls had to be held back by their fellow teammates to keep from beating up the other.

"Tatsu, can it will you?!" cried Kiba as he and Shino restrained the Muteki Jinshin kunoichi from getting into an all out wrestling match with the Blind Bandit. As she continued to struggle, the dog ninja turned to the sensei, "But Tatsu does have a point though Sensei. Besides, we don't have any leads!"

"Actually, we do." as-a-matter-of-factly answered Kurenai.

"Akahoshi right?" asked Genma, as if reading Kurenai's mind.

"Huh?" Suki, Kiba, and Tatsu asked simultaneously while Sokka, Toph, and Shino looked at the sensei like they knew what they were talking about.

"The rest of you probably didn't notice, but it's clear that their leader Akahoshi is hiding something." clarified Shino, narrowing his eyes from behind his glasses.

"What are you talking about Shino?" asked Kiba, letting go of Tatsu, "What could he be hiding?"

"Come to think of it," Suki pondered, hooking a finger under her chin, "when Sumaru said the word 'Kujaku', Akahoshi got pretty uppity."

"There's more to it too." added Toph. Everyone turned his or her attention to her. "When we first arrived at the Hoshikage's place and met Akahoshi, he had already started to lie to us."

"What?" Sokka exclaimed, "Why didn't you bring this up before?"

"I didn't think I had to." the blind earthbender replied calmly, shrugging, "But when he told us that the Third Hoshikage died 'quite suddenly' last year, his heartbeat had changed. I didn't think it was important at first because I thought he was just telling us all _he_ knew, and the rest of what he told us was the truth. But I felt his heartbeat change again when we told him what happened. I agree with Kurenai and Genma Sensei, Akahoshi's definitely hiding something he doesn't want us, or anyone else, to know about."

"Well," said Tatsu putting her hands on her hips, "like they always say: Where there's smoke, there's fire. You think that it was an inside job maybe?"

"Whoa slow down guys!" exclaimed Kiba, "I can't keep up with you. What's going on?"

"Toph, Tatsu," Kurenai addressed, "I want you two to go with Genma and investigate the village. See if we can't find us a trail to follow. Shino, Kiba, I want you two to come with me and be on Akahoshi, we need to keep an eye on him!"

"Understood Kurenai." Genma nodded.

"Leave this to us!" exclaimed Toph with a grin while Tatsu just shrugged.

'I'm stuck with the nicknaming loud mouth and her sensei... fantastic.' she thought sarcastically.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sokka, "What about me and Suki?! We're still here you know!"

"Oh! Um..." Genma contemplated what Sokka and Suki could possibly accomplish while everyone else did what he or she were assigned, "How about the two of you tail Sumaru for awhile? See if you can get anymore information from him."

"Alright! You got it! Come on Suki!" the warrior exclaimed as he ran off toward the forest... in the opposite direction Sumaru went.

"SUMARU WENT THE OTHER WAY SNOOZLES!" shouted Toph, pointing in the other direction.

"I knew that," he muttered to himself in embarrassment as he swiftly turned around and ran the other way.

"Hey wait up Sokka!" called Suki, running behind him. "Oh, uh, we'll catch up with the rest of you later!" she called back before running out of earshot.

Genma chuckled quietly to himself as Toph started laughing at Sokka's antics. Though he was considered the 'brains' of the group most of the time, on a normal basis he could be as idiotic as Naruto sometimes.

'You'll never change even after 1,500 years Snoozles.'

o~o

Up at the top of a long sloping hill, Sumaru stared off into the sunset. The stars that the village was known for were just beginning to twinkle in the sky. One in particular caught the young star ninja's eye. It was a glowing red one. The Natsuhiboshi, also known as the planet Mars, but it would always be Natsuhiboshi to Sumaru. Reaching into the inside of his shirt, Sumaru removed a small purple four pointed star necklace... it had belonged to his mother.

_Natsuhiboshi why are you so red?_

_Because I had a sad dream last night,_

_My eyes are red from the tears I shed,_

_Swollen as I cried..._

As Sumaru started the second verse to the lullaby, he began to remember the last time he saw his mother and father. He was running after them through the village gate as they left for, what he would soon discover, was their last mission. He was crying, his tears streaming down his face, shouting and pleading to them not to leave him alone... That was the last time he ever saw them.

_Natsuhiboshi why've you lost your way?_

_I'm searching for a child who's gone afar,_

_He can't be found though I search all day,_

_My sad dreams come once more..._

Sumaru gazed at the necklace throughout the entire song, wondering, why did his parents have to go and leave him?

"That's a beautiful song."

Sumaru snapped out of his reprieve and looked behind him. Sokka and Suki were running up the hill to where he was. Suki was obviously the one who gave the compliment.

"Thanks," he said after a few seconds, "my mother used to sing it to me."

"Cool," said Sokka, "anyway what are you doing all the way out here?"

"Just passing some time... waiting for the stars to come out."

"The stars huh?" asked Suki smiled, "Yeah, you can see tons of them in the village! The sky is so clear!" The Kyoshi Warrior spotted the red one that Sumaru had been singing about, "Take a look at that red one! It's pretty isn't it?"

"Eh," Sokka shrugged, "I've seen prettier."

"Natsuhiboshi..." Sumaru said, "never alone the star on high watches over me."

"Watches over you?" asked Sokka, noticing that Sumaru had turned and was walking back down the hill.

"Hey, wait up! We'd like to pay your friends a visit!" called Suki, running after with Sokka not too far behind.

"Yeah!" Sokka nodded and reached into his pocket, "Look! I even brought some of the Leaf Village's World Famous Chestnut Bean Jelly!" In the last few weeks of staying and adjusting to the Leaf Village, the Gaang had quite a larger range of foods to tickle their taste buds with. The one that Sokka was holding quickly became one of his personal favorites.

Sumaru only sighed, "Look whatever. You'll find them at the training hall." Before the two warriors could say anything else to the star ninja, Sumaru took off down the hill and out of sight.

"Sheesh," Sokka said with an irritated expression, "that guy's about as warm as an iceberg."

"And you certainly know how warm that is."

"Exactly!"

o~o

It was twilight by the time the two warriors made it to the training hall in the middle of the crater. The training hall was made up of two areas, one where they actually trained within the star's room, and a cabin full of mattresses where the star ninja slept and rested after doing so.

"Might as well knock." said Suki. She rapped the door to the hall twice. Not receiving an answer, Sokka rapped on it harder three more times. "Is there no one here?" asked Suki.

"Okay, what gives!" exclaimed Sokka, obviously a little ticked.

Believing no one would come, the two warriors made their way into the room. There wasn't much to see. There were two rows of mattresses, one on each end of the room, on elevated platforms. None of them were occupied except for the one at the end, where the duo could barely make out a sleeping form.

"Where's-" Sokka was cut short when he saw the corner bed's sleeping form shift. "Hey! You awake over there?"

"SOKKA!" Suki suddenly screamed. Before the warrior could react, both Suki and Sokka were caught in chakra tentacles in the same pinkish shade as Sumaru's and the mysterious kunoichi. Sokka dropped the jelly he brought as he was forced to use both hands to try and cut himself and Suki free of the snare. But it was to no avail with simply their hands.

"Hokato! Knock it off!" called the figure in the corner. "Trust me it's alright! I can tell! They're not enemies!"

"Mizura!" answered a female voice from the ceiling.

Seeing that the assailant was distracted for a moment, Sokka reached for his boomerang and threw it across the room. Mizura, the boy lying down, flinched believing it would hit him but was surprised to see the projectile miss him and sweep back around to where Hokato was located. Hokato looked up in time to barely see the boomerang before one of the edges of it hit her right in the center of her forehead, causing her to lose her footing on the ceiling and drop the jutsu, along with her two captives first, before she herself landed on her butt on the floor. Sokka then caught his boomerang without looking behind him.

"Ow, my butt!" muttered Hokato, rubbing her tender area gingerly.

"Wait! You're a girl?!" exclaimed Sokka with his mouth hanging open.

"What's that supposed to mean Sokka?" asked Suki, crossing her arms and giving her boyfriend a death glare.

Realizing what he just said was rather sexist, Sokka quickly backed down, "Nothing! Nothing Suki!"

"Yeah! I'm a girl! And who are you two?" Hokato glared at the two warriors in suspicion. She had fair skin traits with freckles along with brown hair in a high ponytail and indigo eyes. She was wearing a light pink blouse with a turquoise, red patterned dress over it. For her bottom attire she was wearing light pink leg warmers with suspenders and brown sandals. She had the Hidden Star Village forehead protector around her forehead as well.

"I'm Suki and this is Sokka! We're ninja from the Hidden Leaf. And we're here to keep an eye this precious star of yours, got it?"

"Yeah!" agreed Sokka, "I mean seriously, what's with you guys here? First Sumaru when we first arrive, now you? It is a custom here to greet visitors or allies by trying to kill them first?!"

"You mean-?" Hokato gasped at her mistake, and quickly bowed in apology, "I'm so sorry! Forgive me!"

"Don't worry about it!" Sokka shrugged it off, knowing it was just a misunderstanding, "We just came by for a visit." Then he realized something. "Huh?! Hey where's the jelly? Uh no! Now stuff is vanishing on me! I'M JINXED!"

"Uh Sokka..." said Suki as she pointed awkwardly at Hokato's butt. Hokato turned pale as she slowly looked at her butt and to her horror; the jelly was glued to it.

"Oh, never mind, there it is!"

o~o

Meanwhile, in the darkness of the night, three ambition shinobi met within the Hoshikage's residence to discuss the star situation. They had no don't that they knew the kunoichi that stole the star. They couldn't believe that they were still alive!

"There's no doubt about it," the leader said as he glanced out the window. His two henchmen stiffened.

One of the men was a bald man with thick black eyebrows and dark-colored eyes. He was wearing a purple forehead protector on his forehead and a purple-blue flak jacket. He had a black T-shirt under his flak jacket and short black arm sleeves on his lower arms. He also was wearing a pair of black pants with two knee guards. "So the kunoichi who made off with the star... are you saying it was really...?"

"How could they even be alive?" the other asked. This man had long chin length black hair and dark-colored eyes. He was also wearing a purple forehead protector on his forehead and a blue-purple flak jacket like his partner, but he had a black long sleeve shirt underneath it instead. He also was wearing a black pair of shorts.

The first looked at the second, "We don't stand a chance... They were the last to ever complete the full training of the star... which means that-!"

"We're no match with our level of jutsu!" the second finished, fear evident in his voice.

The leader smirked, "I wouldn't worry..." he faced his two henchmen, "If they really are the culprit don't forget that we posses their Achilles heel."

The two men were shocked that they had forgotten about that. They smirked. It was true; the village still had something that would bring the supposed culprits to their knees.

"I suppose so," the bald one said.

"That's right," said the other, "what are we waiting for? Let's go round them up!" Before the two could leave though, their boss stopped them.

"Hold on..." he smirked as he looked out the window. He had known the entire time that they were being watched. "First things first, we need to distract these annoying little flies." Lord Akahoshi said with a sick smile spreading over his face.

o~o

Most of the jelly had been squashed under Hokato's butt, but once it was completely unwrapped, most of the food survived the impact and was currently spread out on a plate with a handful of toothpicks on the sides.

"I'm Hokato by the way." one of the girls by the plate said, "Please forgive me for being so rash but I didn't recognize either of your chakras... I'm sorry."

"Eh, don't worry about it." Sokka shrugged as he took a toothpick a skewered one of the jelly slices, "we've had worse, believe me." He then popped the jelly piece into his mouth. Suki followed suite.

"Mmmmm..." the Kyoshi Warrior smiled as the sweet flavor filled her mouth. "Now this is good stuff, go on and dig in! The food's not going to eat itself! And if it doesn't Sokka will!" She giggled as she saw the warrior swallow his first piece before stuffing another one in.

"Okay," Hokato said, tentatively picking up a toothpick and putting smaller piece of jelly in. Her face quickly brightened when she tasted it. "Wow! That _is_ good! You two weren't kidding!"

"I know right?" asked Sokka, finishing his third piece. After swallowing the water tribe warrior looked at the empty mattresses in suspicion, "Hey, just out of curiosity, where's everyone else? Where'd they run off to?"

"It's okay," Hokato answered, "the thief just put us to sleep, we didn't really get hurt or anything."

"That's good to know." Suki sighed in relief, at least no one has gotten hurt so far. A fit of violent coughing brought their attention to Mizura, a boy about Hokato and Sumaru's age who had medium length, dull purple hair and large brown eyes. He was also wearing a green kimono with blue trimmings.

"Hey, are you alright? That cough doesn't sound too good." Sokka observed as he bent over the sick star ninja.

"By the way," Suki added, "we owe you for saving us back there."

"Uh, hello?" Sokka asked Suki incredulously, gesturing to his boomerang, "I did the boomerang thing." The only thing he got in return was an elbow to the ribs.

"Anyway," Suki drew her attention back to Mizura, "are you going to be alright?"

"I'm fine," Mizura insisted, with conviction in his eyes, "I just need a little rest."

Hokato sighed sadly, "Mizura's health has been worsening ever since he began the star training."

"Hokato!" Mizura suddenly shouted between violent coughs, "You shouldn't talk about the star in front of outsiders!"

"Mizura hold on!" the star kunoichi cried reaching for some tea in a small pot, "I'm really sorry, I wasn't thinking that's all!"

"Outsiders?" asked Sokka, raising an eyebrow in disbelief, "you guys too?"

"You people this village are pretty cold around here," agreed Suki. "Especially that Sumaru kid."

"I'm sorry, but..." Hokato apologized as she pulled away from Mizura, "There's a reason Sumaru acts the way he does."

"Really?" the two warriors asked simultaneously.

"It happened... It happened about ten years ago..." Hokato explained with a solemn look on her face, "Sumaru's parents were guarding over the star... when they were killed by ninja from another village... seeking to steal it!"

Suki and Sokka were shocked. That explained everything about Sumaru's behavior. Both of them, especially Sokka, couldn't blame him. Both him and Katara had acted cold and bratty for a while after their mother was killed too in that Fire Nation raid on their home in the South Pole. Ever since, even after going with Aang, neither of them were the same.

"That's why... he's so..."

"Yeah, we understand." Sokka nodded. He knew exactly how Sumaru felt after all.

"That explains an awful lot..." Suki whispered. Then she remembered why they came to the training hall in the first place and what their task was! "Wait, where is Sumaru right now?!"

"And you said there were more of you!" added Sokka, "How come it's just you two here?!"

"They're gone." Hokato said, "They said they were going after the star." When she looked up, Suki and Sokka were gone and the door to the training hall closed with a slam!

"A-alright, well," Hokato said to nothing in particular, "...bye."

Outside the crater, Sokka and Suki sprinted up the hill as they avoided and jumped over charred and fallen over trees and branches.

'What on earth are they thinking?' thought Sokka with gritted teeth, 'we told them no!'

'These kids are going to get killed!' thought Suki as she and Sokka continued to sprint upward, praying that they weren't too late!

o~o

Meanwhile, back near the Hoshikage's residence, Kurenai, Kiba, and Shino were hidden in the bushes as well as behind a small genjutsu that Kurenai had cast as a precaution. Just as she and Genma had ordered, the three of them were keeping an eye on Akahoshi and his two men that he had with him. After what Toph revealed to them about his lies about the Third Hoshikage's death, it only heightened their suspicions that the deputy was hiding something. The trio didn't have to wait very long until they spotted the two men, Shiso and Yotaka they had been told by an anonymous source, emerging from the building.

"Here they come..." Kurenai murmured as she narrowed her eyes.

"Right, let's go!" Kiba exclaimed softly, "I've been wanting some action all day!" Akamaru growled in agreement, just waiting for a chance to go wild.

"No Kiba," Kurenai ordered as she pulled the dog ninja back down, "we're here for surveillance, nothing more."

"But Kurenai Sensei!" he whined, "You know this isn't my strong suite!"

"Kiba," said Shino in his usual monotone voice, "just shut yourself and Akamaru up, or else you'll blow our cover."

The three ninja, even Kiba and Akamaru, managed to stay quiet as Shiso and Yotaka passed the bushes they were hiding in.

"Alright you two, leave the shadowing jutsu to me," Kurenai told the two, especially Kiba, "all you two need to do is remain absolutely silent."

"Yes sensei," Shino answered immediately.

Kiba humphed before muttered, "I understand sensei..."

"Right, let's go!"

Now, if this was a mission and with ninja of higher rank, Kurenai wouldn't have had a problem casting a full on genjutsu to conceal their presence, but, since she had two brand new genin ninja with her, the so called 'Shadowing Jutsu' she had to use consisted of an overturned barrel barely big enough to squeeze the three of them inside. The front of it had a peeping hole so that Kurenai could see where they were going without bumping into anything or _anyone._

Kurenai stopped a safe distance away from the two ninja and Kurenai looked through the peephole. To her relief, the two they were trailing didn't seem to notice them yet.

"Alright, they haven't noticed us yet." she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Kurenai Sensei," Kiba whined, "are you sure this doesn't go against the way of the ninja?"

"Stop complaining Kiba," Shino scolded, "Why? Because with you being quiet it will make the mission so much easier."

"Yeah, well this is unlike any ninjutsu I've ever seen!"

Kurenai sighed. She knew Kiba wasn't really one for being patient. She had a feeling she was going to need to beat it into him somehow when they got back. She almost forgot to watch what the two men were doing and took an abrupt step back when she saw that they had stopped, like they knew someone was following them.

"Have they spotted us sensei?" asked Kiba. Akamaru whimpered as if to ask the same thing.

"I don't believe so." Kurenai saw that the bald one, Shiso, was talking to the other, Yokota, about something, but they were too far away to hear them. Shiso looked toward the box's direction and Kurenai tensed, believing they had been seen. Much to her relief though the men kept walking instead.

"It would appear that we have escaped their attention sensei." said Shino.

"Yes, you're correct Shino," she nodded, "let's keep going."

The two men made a right turn down a more deserted alleyway and the trio followed them. But they hadn't followed very far until the two of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What?!" cried Kurenai as she removed the box off of them.

"They gave us slip?!" cried Kiba in outrage. Akamaru growled in agreement.

"They didn't see, us did they?" asked Shino.

"No, that's impossible," said Kurenai. She didn't get to think about it very long because a huge rain of shuriken came raining down on the three of them.

"Akamaru!" said dog barked in acknowledgement and leapt onto his owner's head.

"Ninja Art: Beast Mimicry!" they both shouted/barked as the dog turned into an exact copy of his owner. Both of them soon had chakra wafting off of their limbs as both of them ran forward toward the oncoming shuriken. "FANG OVER FANG!" Kiba shouted as he and Akamaru spun around at a blinding speed, blocking and knocking away all the shuriken and flying projectiles. Kurenai and Shino used their own kunai to block any that Kiba missed. Kurenai even used the box that they were hiding under as a shield. It didn't take long to identify the assailants, for it was the two men that _they_ were supposed to be tailing!

"Hold on!" Kurenai cried before anyone else could throw another attack, "We're not your enemies!"

"Yeah!" shouted Kiba in agreement as Akamaru poofed back to his dog self, barking after he did so at the men. "We're on a mission from the Hidden Leaf Village!

"Well," Shiso sneered, "a few Leaf shinobi huh?"

"What are you trailing us for?" asked Yotaka with an equal sneer, "don't you people have a thief to catch somewhere?"

"Perhaps," said Shino, "but you can't roll out the fact that you two could also be enemies in disguise."

"Ha!" Shiso laughed, "You got a lot of nerve!"

"We apologize for being rude!" Kurenai said, trying to negotiate, "but I'm afraid we don't have any leads to the thief or the star! Not to mention that we simply wish to see the star returned to where it belongs!"

"So you thought you'd tag after us for a while..." finished Shiso for the genjutsu mistress, "Is that the idea?"

"Pfft!" Yotaka tisked, "Sounds like a waste of time!"

"Yeah, thanks anyway, but we can get the star back ourselves!" Shiso said with pride, "If you really want to do us a favor then stay the heck out of our way!" The men leapt from the group out of sight before anyone could say anything else.

Kurenai had an irritated expression on her face. Her suspicion that Akahoshi was hiding something only grew more now.

"Well you didn't have to be such jerks about it!" Kiba shouted toward their directions.

"It seems that Toph's, Genma Sensei's and your theory seemed to be right." Shino said, turning toward the other two with his hands in his pockets. "They do appear to be hiding something in this village sensei."

"Yes, you're right..." Kurenai said through gritted teeth. 'But what?'

o~o

Just as Hokato had told Sokka and Suki, Sumaru and the other Star Village genin had gone off deep into the woods near the canyon to search for the star. They had all met on a large flat rock outcropping and were at the moment standing in a circle at an arm's length from one another.

"Everyone," Sumaru instructed, "join hands." He and the other genin clasped the hands of the others. "Alright now, start looking for the same star chakra that we all carry." He and the other star genin closed their eyes and began to concentrate on their chakra. It didn't take long for them all to be covered in a pinkish purple aura of star chakra. As the aura got thicker, it suddenly started to trail off of them and float northwest of their position.

Sumaru's eyes snapped open. "There you are!"

The other genin didn't hesitate to follow Sumaru as he bolted towards the direction the chakra trail was leading. As they approached they saw the same masked ninja standing at the edge of the canyon. It didn't take long for the other genin to surround her. Before the ninja could do anything to defend herself, the genin thrust out their hands and strands of pinkish purple chakra that bound the thief in its tight coils.

"These threads are made of chakra," Sumaru proclaimed, "they can't be severed!"

The only reaction that he received was an evil, unseen smirk from behind the ninja's mask.

"Give us the star!" Sumaru ordered, "You may as well robbed us our life's blood!" Sumaru tugged on the strings to pull the thief in his direction but she stood firm to her position.

o~o

Meanwhile, a short distance away Genma, Tatsu, and Toph were scouring the area to see they could uncover any leads concerning the start. Genma and Tatsu were currently standing next to Toph who had her hand on the ground and was using seismic sense to feel for any activity in the area.

Toph quickly perked up when she felt the vibrations of two human feet hopping off of the tree branches nearby.

"Here come Snoozles and Face Paint." she announced as she stood back up. Tatsu and Genma turned toward the direction Toph was facing and indeed saw Sokka and Suki land in front of them.

"Genma Sensei! Toph! Tatsu! Thank goodness we found you!" exclaimed Suki, slightly out of breath. It was taking longer than she thought to get used to hopping from the tree trunks.

"Yeah!" agreed Sokka, out of equal breath, "have any of you seen Sumaru?"

"I thought I told _you guys_ to keep an eye on him!" Genma said to the duo, his senbon clicking in his teeth.

"Wander off in the wrong direction again Snoozles?" asked Toph, trying hard, and nearly failing to contain her laughter.

"No Toph I didn't," Sokka growled at the earthbender, "but we were on him for a bit but then he just took off with a bunch of the others to go get the star themselves!"

"What?!" cried Tatsu, "What are they thinking?"

"We asked ourselves the same question," explained Suki, "we're currently trying to find them before they get hurt!"

"I see..." Genma nodded, "Toph, can you try to locate them with your earthbending?"

"Genma Sensei! Who do you think you're talking to?" the earthbender knelt to the ground again and felt for vibrations. She gasped slightly when she felt numerous heartbeats beating at an alarming rate in the direction for the canyon.

"What?" asked Tatsu, "you find them?"

"I think so! I feel numerous heartbeats over near the Valley of Death."

"Then that means-!" Suki started.

"She's back!" Sokka finished with gritted teeth.

"I don't think so..." Toph said before they could jump to the trees, "The one at the center has a different heartbeat than the last one we faced. I think it's a different person!"

"Well, whether it's the same one or someone else," Genma said with a serious tone, "we must assist. Let's hurry, all of you!"

"Right!" they exclaimed in unison, as they leapt for the trees.

o~o

Back at the canyon known as the Valley of Death, the star genin still had the 'thief' in the clutches of their chakra strings. It didn't last very long though when the strings were suddenly shredded when the genin used up most of their chakra. One by one, they each hit the ground face first with a 'thud'.

Sumaru struggled to rise to his feet once again, but the effects of chakra exhaustion were simply too much for him to do so. The 'thief' approached him until he was right on top of him.

"Gi-give it back!" Sumaru muttered in exhaustion, reaching for the 'thief' "The star... it's ours! You've no right to it!"

The 'thief' laughed at Sumaru's futile threats, knowing it would do him no good. The 'thief' then held out his hand towards Sumaru and a vortex of pinkish purple chakra emanated from it. Covering most of Sumaru's face, knocking him unconscious.

Before the thief could do anything else to the boy, two small boulders zoomed past him, barely missing him.

"Hold it!" shouted a female voice. Off in the distance the 'thief' saw that the assailants were some of the Leaf Ninja that the Village had hired to protect the star.

"Chew on this!" the green clad girl screeched as she chucked more boulders at him by swinging her arms forward. She was obviously the one who had shouted earlier. The other's followed her lead by swinging their own sets of kunai and shuriken in their direction. The teenage boy in the group even threw his boomerang at him.

The 'thief' made the Bird hand sign and proclaimed, "Ninja Art: Kujaku!" resulting in the same pinkish purple chakra tail to emerge from behind him. All the kunai and other weapons hit the chakra wall all at once, but instead of going through it, they were hammered right back at the group.

"Get down!" shouted Genma as he and other four genin dove to the side to avoid the onslaught of weapons. Sokka quickly caught his boomerang before it could hit him as well.

The 'thief' then hoisted Sumaru onto his shoulder and walked leisurely towards the Valley of Death's edge.

"You're not going anywhere!" shouted Tatsu as she and the others sprinted to stop him from kidnapping Sumaru. The 'thief' stopped at the very tip and turned to meet the pursuers.

"Don't even think about!" shouted Sokka, preparing to throw his boomerang again.

"Farewell." the 'thief' said simply as he jumping backwards into the canyon.

"NO!" shouted Suki as she instinctively threw one last punch at the 'thief'.

That was when something very strange and impossible happened.

Suki knew that she was way too far away to land a hit, but she wasn't expecting a huge billow _air_ to shoot out of her hand! The air ball hit the 'thief' square in the chest causing an 'oof' to escape his mouth as he was shot farther from the canyon edge with Sumaru. The 'thief' quickly regained his bearing though and turned over onto his stomach. He made the chakra wings that the original thief produced as well, and took off across the canyon. Because everyone was still in shock from Suki's sudden airbending display, nobody made a move to follow him. Sokka's mouth may as well have hit the ground from how surprised he was.

"Face Paint," Toph asked in surprise, "did you just?"

"Airbend?" Suki finished, looking at her trembling hands in shock and slight fear, "Yup."

Sokka couldn't take everything that had happened that day and immediately fainted from shock, and began foaming at the mouth after he made impact.

"Great," Toph sighed, exasperated, "next thing you know, Snoozles over there is going to start _waterbending_ out of the blue!"

"Suki," said Genma, having quickly gotten over his shock, "I thought you told me you weren't a bender."

"I'm not... Or... at least I wasn't!" Genma studied Suki's face, and from the way her hands and mouth slightly trembled, he could tell she was telling the truth.

"Never mind the sudden 'I can suddenly bend air now' problem, that guy got away with Sumaru!" exclaimed Tatsu pointing at the canyon with one hand and covering her mouth and nose with a cloth with the other. Everyone else minus Sokka followed suite.

"Tatsu's right," Genma agreed, "Without that mask, he would've been dead in seconds once he entered the canyon."

"Badgermoles," Toph muttered in defeat, "and we almost had him too!"

"So that's our thief huh?" asked Tatsu, looking at Suki for clarification.

"Yes, he certainly looked like it anyway." nodded Suki.

"But like I said before," argued Toph, "this guy had a different heartbeat, so it could be possible that it's a different person, but he could also be working with the women who originally stole the star."

"That's a good point you made Toph," Genma said, "we can't roll out the possibility that there are more people working on this theft... but..."

"But?" asked the four genin who were still conscious.

"Why go so far as to take Sumaru with him?" asked Genma in suspicion, "he already has the star after all."

"Wait!" said Suki suddenly, "I totally forgot about this early, but someone had tried to steal it ten years ago as well! I wouldn't be surprised if there could be a connection somehow! Sumaru's parents were guarding it and managed to fend off the attack... but they didn't make it."

"What?!" the three conscious ninja said in unison. That explained why Sumaru acted the way he did. But now it seemed Sumaru's past had come back to haunt him.

And besides the missing star problem, they, specifically Team 11 and the other benders, had another mystery on their hands: Suki could now airbend. How? She couldn't before; she wasn't even born as an air nomad.

What in the world was going on?!

o~o

**AN: AAAAAHHHHHHH! 21 PAGES! I hope this makes up for being absent for so long! Thank you everyone for your patience! School has really been hammering on me lately! **

**Anyway, you're all probably wondering why I suddenly made Suki an airbender out of the blue… Well, think about a certain event that happened in ****Legend of Korra**** and connect the dots everyone!**

**Also, I'll be posting another poll very soon concerning Team 12's mission when it comes around. (BTW, I'm going to be completely each arc separately, they're all happening at once, but I'm only doing each one at a time. So this is Team 11, then it will be Team 12, then end with Team 9 in the Land of Waves!) I'm torn between putting them in 'Land of Birds' Arc or 'The Curry of Life' Arc, when I post the poll, please answer it! Thank you!**

**Finally, I thought about this a couple of days ago, but should I start putting some 'Previously on Avatar…' openings (only it will be Previously on the Bender Ninja…) PM or let me know in comments! Thanks!**


	11. Episode 10: Price of Ninja Art: Kujaku

Episode 10: Hidden Jutsu! The Price of the Ninja Art: Kujaku!

Hidden deep within the forest of the Land of Bears, a kunoichi hid herself in a cave that she and her husband had used to hide out in after the _incident_. They knew that if the star training ever came back into the lives of the children, especially their son, they would all be in great danger and eventually die from its effects. That was why she had taken the star once again, to stop the pain and suffering that the star brought to the village.

_Natsuhiboshi why are you so red?_

_Because I had a sad dream last night,_

_My eyes are red from the tears I shed,_

_Swollen as I cried..._

o~o

As the 'thief' who took the star swept down across the canyon with Sumaru on his back, Kurenai, Kiba, and Shino finally were able to randevú with Genma, Tatsu, Toph, Sokka, and Suki.

"There you are!" exclaimed Kurenai in obvious relief as she and the two boys skidded to a stop in front of the other five. When they arrived they noticed that Sokka was flat out on the ground unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

"What happened to him?" asked Kiba with a raised eyebrow at the strange site of the Water Tribe Warrior.

"Long story." Toph replied simply.

"And what about them?" asked Kurenai, directing her question about the star genin lying on the ground as well, also knocked out.

"It seems our thief struck again," explained Genma, his senbon dancing from corner of his lips to the other.

"He came back?" asked Shino, perplexed that the thief would return if she already had what she wanted: the star.

"Yeah," nodded Suki, shaking off her trembles from her sudden airbending display earlier, "and this time they took Sumaru."

"What?" asserted Kiba, stunned, Akamaru barking in equal shock, "They got him?"

"Yep." Tatsu deadpanned.

"Regardless, our first order of business is to make sure these people here are alright," Genma ordered gesturing to the fallen children, "help us carry them... and Sokka back."

"No need Sensei!" Toph stepped closer toward Sokka.

"SNOOZLES, GET UP!" The blind bender smashed her heel into the soil and next thing they knew, Sokka was sent flying, screaming into the air thanks to a giant earth column that had promptly erupted from underneath his sleeping form. He landed with a not too pleasant 'plop' on the earth beneath him. He then hand sprung from the ground and brandished his machete and a kunai in both hands, looking around rapidly.

"DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" he cried, wild panic evident in his eyes and voice, "Take cover, we're under attack!" He was shaken back to reality though when his outburst was met with a _very_ loud roar of laughter from behind him. Turning to the source, he saw Toph on the ground clutching her stomach and tears streaming from her eyes as she howled with laughter. Kiba and Suki were in similar positions, simply bent over laughing their heads off. Genma looked like he was struggling not to laugh as he lips and senbon were quivering from the effort. Kurenai was simply shaking her head with an amused smile on her face, and Tatsu and Shino remained emotionless as ever, though the former was looking at the warrior with a look that read 'Are you (insert glittery swear word here) kidding me?'

"Wha-?" the warrior was about to ask before glancing behind him to see the earth column still present from where he was lying. That's when everything clicked in his brain, and he gave Toph a glare that would have burned her to ashes if looks could kill. "Oh, hardy har har Toph!"

"I'm sorry," Toph barely sputtered through her laughter, "couldn't resist!"

o~o

Later, back at the training hall, Team 8 and 11 did indeed begin to carry all the star genin that were present on the cliffside back to the bunker. Hokato was still there, continuing to diligently nurse Mizura, who was sweating and panting on his futon.

"Mizura." Hokato sighed as she patted the boy's forehead with a wet cloth. His condition had been getting worse and worse. She was worried that he might even...

Hokato didn't get a chance to finish her dire thought when the doors to the chamber opened. The first two to walk in were ones that she knew well.

"Sokka! Suki!" Hokato was shocked to see that both of the Leaf ninja were carrying a star genin each on their shoulders.

Seeing her concern Suki explained, "They were jumped by that ninja in the mask!" Behind them, Genma, Toph, and Tatsu trailed the Water Tribe boy and the now airbending Kyoshi Warrior. Each of them was also carrying a star genin on their shoulders.

"No one's badly hurt," Genma reassured for the now frantic star kunoichi, "they're just unconscious." This caused Hokato to sigh in absolute relief as her hand clasped her heart, now knowing that none of them were wounded.

With help from said star kunoichi, the team took it upon themselves to tuck the star genin into each futon. When most of them were settled Hokato noticed that some of the other star genin were missing, particularly Sumaru, so she asked, "Where's everybody else?"

"Kurenai Sensei, Kiba, and Shino have got them." explained Tatsu, showing no emotion at all, vaguely reminding Suki and Sokka once again how similar she was to Mai, "they're bringing them back now."

Hokato smiled in reprieve, "I see, so Sumaru's with them?" she asked with a great amount of hope in her voice.

This question made most of the Leaf ninja freeze. They had forgotten that Hokato was very close friends with Sumaru. How were they supposed to tell her that he had been kidnapped?

"Well..." Sokka sputtered, scratching the back of his head, "um... how do I put this?"

"Oh for crying out loud Snoozles!" Toph cried, "It's not that hard to say it! That masked creep took Sumaru okay? He took off with him into the Valley of Death! We couldn't get him okay?!" Though Toph tried to show that she had a tough vintage when it came to assignments, even she felt a little guilty of having lost the young star ninja. It had reminded her of how Appa had been taken and Aang berating her because she couldn't save him.

"The Valley of Death?!" Hokato cried in horror.

o~o

A small oil lamp was one of the few light sources in the room. Next to it on a small table was a laptop computer monitoring a heartbeat of a young man lying unconscious on the bed. The man, boy really, had several monitoring sensors on his chest, neck, and forehead, and an intubation tube thoroughly covered his mouth and nose to keep him sedated. By the bed, the 'masked ninja' and his two colleagues were the only other ones present in the room.

"Did he inhale much of the gas in the Valley?" the shorter one asked.

"Don't worry," the 'masked ninja' reassured them, discarding his oxygen mask to reveal the face of the deputy Hoshikage: Akahoshi, "I put him in a state of suspended animation, the gas didn't affect him."

"I can understand wanting to use him to bait your trap," Yokota hesitated before continuing, "but all the same..."

"These are children from our own village." Shiso finished for his friend with equal anxiety.

Akahoshi sneered, "I always suspected you'd lose your nerve." Both the ninja in front of him gasped and tensed. "Well it's too late," The lilac haired shinobi suddenly had a very feral look in his eye, "your hands are far too dirty to play the saint now!" Realizing he was right, Yotaka and Shiso looked downward, unable to meet their leader's eye, "So enough of that! For now we'll let them think the other masked shinobi took Sumaru. Once we have the star back... well, we'll leave it to them to sort it all out."

Akahoshi chuckled in the dimly lit room, his eyes resembling a wolf that was stalking its prey... and about to pounce!

o~o

Back at the training hall, all the star genin had been safely and successfully moved to the futons where they could rest from the most recent attack from the 'thief'. Sleeping in the last futon was Mizura, still not able to get up since Sokka and Suki had last seen him. Toph trudged along by his bedside, wondering why this star genin hadn't gone with the others.

As if reading her mind, and seeing Toph's curiosity, Hokato said to the Blind Bandit, "Oh, Mizura wasn't feeling too well, he's taking a break from training."

Toph's nod was the only sign that she had heard the kunoichi. However, ever since stepping foot in the village, Toph felt that something was off about a majority of the people living here. Scrunching her eyebrows in suspicious, the earthbender bent down and laid her hand flat on the wooden floor, listening closely to the sleeping shinobi's heartbeat.

Knowing that the boy was asleep Toph knew what to listen for in the heart rate. Usually when a person was in a deep sleep, be it male _or_ female, their heart would usually slow down it's beats by about 8% or more since the body didn't need to work as hard when it was lying still.

So the Blind Earthbender was horrified to feel the exact opposite of such a thing. Instead of the usually steady _thump-thump... thump-thump_ of a resting heart rate, Mizura's heart rate was making a _thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump _sound, with no sign of pausing or slowing down. His heart was working at the pace that wasn't anywhere close to being felt even after someone had gone through a long day of training with no breaks in between.

'What?!' she thought to herself about hearing the terrifying speed of the heart beats, her already blind eyes widening in shock. How was this boy even able to still stand with his heart fluttering so fast?

No sooner had Toph abruptly moved her hand off the hardwood platform, Mizura groaned and slowly cracked his eyes open.

"Mizura!" Hokato exclaimed as she watched her friend struggling to sit up.

Toph quickly knelt beside him balance him so that he wouldn't flop back down onto the futon. "How are you feeling? You okay?"

"Lie down!" Hokato chided from the futon opposite of him, "You need to rest!"

Even in his sick and exhausted state Mizura mumbled, "No one can afford to rest at a time like this!" Before he could continue though, a violent cough rippled from his throat. They were surprised that he didn't hack up the rest of his esophagus from it.

"Look," said Toph, staring in his direction with her glazed eyes, "I know it can't be easy, but you shouldn't try to push yourself. Even _I _know when I'm pushing myself or someone else too hard."

"I'm fine!" Mizura insisted through gritted teeth as he struggled to his feet. Shaking her head slightly from his stubbornness, Toph helped Mizura get a firm grip on his soles. He quickly batted her hand away though once he had risen, "I can walk by myself!"

All the other Leaf ninja who were tending to the other star genin looked up in consternation as they watched Mizura drag his feet to the entrance of the sleeping chamber, panting heavily as he went.

He stumbled when he was about a couple yards from the door, and before anyone made a move to catch him, Hokato did for them.

"You see?" she berated as she held his torso, "I told you, you have to rest!"

"I'm alright! Let me be!"

Sokka looked at Mizura and saw his sister Katara when she was younger. When they're mother died, she had always been very depressed; she would cry herself to sleep at night and sometimes wouldn't even eat the meager meals that they could provide in their harsh environment of the South Pole. He didn't want to see someone suffer like that ever again.

'I have to help him somehow.' the warrior got to his feet and exited the room.

o~o

In the Hoshikage's residence, a nurse monitored Sumaru, to make sure that not only he wasn't suffering from any of the effects that the gas in the Valley of Death could give, but also to make sure that he stayed sedated until Akahoshi got back the star. On the outside, Sumaru seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but his mind was anything but peaceful.

(His Dream)

_A young Sumaru gazed up at the stars that surrounded the village, admiring the way that they made the night sky twinkly in the dark. Right in the middle of the vortex of sparkles was the Natsuhiboshi, shining down on him as if embracing him in his mother's arms once again._

_Suddenly an orb of bright yellow light blinded the star ninja before his eyes became used to it. Within the orb, walking away from him, as if they didn't have a care in the world, were purple pinkish outlines of his mother and father._

_"Mother!" the young Sumaru cried as he leapt toward the figure, in an attempt to stop it from leaving him._

_As if hearing his call, the outline 'turned' toward the child, her hair fluttering in the wind behind her. As soon as Sumaru's hand made contact though, the image poofed away in a whirl of sparkle, the other figure following closely behind._

_"NO! MOTHER! FATHER!" Sumaru screamed as the figures flickered away back to the sky. They instantaneously replaced with another more distinct, but still familiar figure._

_It was the Third Hoshikage! He was an elderly man with brown a mustache and beard, he also had cheek bones and tear troughs under his eyes due to his old age. His attire consisted of the traditional Hoshikage attire with the customary hat and haori along with a purple, full-length kimono, tied using a white sash. _

_"No Sumaru," the Hoshikage said gently, "don't cry. Your parents died defending the star and our village to the very best of their abilities." The Hoshikage's head tilted upward, toward the stars that surrounded them, "Look up Sumaru. Look up at the sky." The boy, tears still streaming down his face obeyed. "There is a treasure that can only be seen from the Village Hidden in the Stars." The young Sumaru looked at the Hoshikage in confusion, "If you would claim you shinobi birthright, than the village and the star are yours to defend... Be strong, just as your parents were. Make them proud of you. Okay?"_

(End Dream)

"...Lord... Hoshikage..."

o~o

'Thunk' 'thunk' 'thunk' was heard as Sokka hacked his machete against the cane that he had crafted for Mizura. He figured that if he could help out a little bit, he'd help Mizura walk again. He held the cane out in front of his person and examined it carefully, as if he was presenting it to Wan Shi Tong as a work of knowledge instead of to a boy who needed a walking stick.

"Hmm..." he narrowed his eyes, "Something's still- oh I've got it!" He tore with kunai bag off his midriff and started rummaging through the contents, throwing things comically out behind him and praying that he didn't hit anyone with a stray kunai or shuriken. Finally he pulled out two small bells attached to some twine that he had brought along for unknown reasons. "Now I know why I brought these!" He guided the string of the bells through a hole that he quickly created at the top of the handle before letting them dangle loosely making a soft ringing sound in the air as he did so.

He once again examined the staff to make sure there weren't any nooks or crannies that he had missed on his first inspection before nodding in satisfaction. "There! That ought to do it!"

"Sokka."

The water tribe warrior looked up to see Suki and Toph approaching him. Their faces were very grim, especially the Blind Bandit's.

"What's wrong Suki? Toph?"

"Mizura's not going to make it Snoozles." Toph finally muttered.

Sokka felt the blood drain from his face. "...What?"

"I felt a disturbance in his heart rate so I took a closer look," the earthbender explained, "and even as he's sleeping, his heart's beating at an alarming unsustainable rate! It's just too much for his body to take! His systems are eventually going to fail!"

Unbeknownst to everyone but Toph, Hokato was standing by, eavesdropping on what the three benders were talking about. Her hands clenched and her own heart began to beat rapidly at this revelation.

"Toph what are you saying?" asked Suki.

"Are trying to say that his own heart and chakra are going to kill him?" asked a shocked Sokka.

"Positive." Toph nodded once.

"But how-?"

Before Suki could continue, Hokato appeared from behind the tree she was hiding behind and approached them. "It's because of the star training."

"About time you showed yourself Twinkle Star," Toph muttered folding her arms.

"What do you mean the star training?" asked Sokka.

"The star has a unique power of triggering a surge in chakra..." she explained, "The problem is... most ninja are incapable of controlling the surge... Their bodies give out and they collapse or worse... This is what happened to Mizura... in the middle of his training... The Third Hoshikage stopped the Star Training because it was proving far too dangerous for our people."

"Okay..." Suki rose an eyebrow, "but why are you doing it again?"

"It's because of Lord Akahoshi our current leader... he decided to resume the star training six months ago."

"Bu- but that's insane!" Sokka exclaimed, "somebody's got to make him stop!"

Hokato glared at the water tribe warrior, "We were born and raised here! We don't fear the star training! We undergo it proudly!"

"Why?" asked Toph, stomping her foot light enough not to make a crater, "Why do something that you know is going to hurt you?!"

"We've been raised to believe there is no greater honor than to serve the village as a Hidden Star Shinobi... For that we'd sacrifice anything... even our own lives."

The trio couldn't believe what they were hearing! It was like a smaller, less mind washing, version of Ba Sing Se! These people truly didn't see anything wrong with what they were doing! All of them clenched their fists, there had to be a way to stop this... somehow.

"Unbelievable..." Sokka muttered, shaking his head sadly. 'What on earth has this world come to?'

o~o

At the Valley of Death, looking out into the murky night, Lord Akahoshi made several hand signs before taking out a dove that he was keeping under his cloak. Taking one of the legs he tied a piece of cloth to it and injected his star chakra onto it before tossing the bird into the air.

"Go on!" he instructed as the dove flew into the night.

'Let's see if that gets your attention... Natsuhi.' he thought as he smirked wickedly.

o~o

A rock seemed to move automatically overtop of a large rock formation, cloaking a strong pink-purple light from the inside of it. Inside, the masked kunoichi finally removed her mask to reveal long locks violet hair and jade-green eyes. She stood over a coffin with the corpse of her husband inside it as she held the star close to her.

'Hotarubi... protect the star...' she leaned down and placed it on his frail hands, 'Protect Sumaru...'

Weaving quick hand signs, Natsuhi sealed the coffin shut and then did the same with boulder that guarded the exit. Before she could accomplish anything else however, she sensed a very familiar chakra signature. Looking up, a white messenger dove was flying overhead with a piece of white cloth on its leg carrying the chakra she was sensing.

"Akahoshi's chakra..." she muttered as she wove more handsigns and tossed out a chakra whip to snatch the bird and real it in.

o~o

Back at the Star Training Hall in the sleeping chamber Mizura watched over his teammates as they slept. He consciously looked over at the over at the walking staff that Sokka had given to him early that night.

(Flashback)

_"Go ahead and take it!" the warrior said he held it out to him with smile, "It'll help you get around easier... I mean just until you get better of course!"_

(End Flashback)

Tears gathered in Mizura's eyes as the reality of his fate came crashing down on him again. He knew better than anyone that he wouldn't _be_ getting better.

'Thank you... Sokka... but I... never will...' he thought in sorrow as he held the staff and dragged himself to his feet.

o~o

At the crater's edge, Team 11 and Team 8 had gathered to discuss what was happening in this village that they could see throughout their stay. First the star had been stolen, Suki could suddenly airbend, Akahoshi had been lying to them for perhaps the whole time they had been there so far, and now they had discovered through Team 11 that the genin going to through the Star Training were slowly suffering a painful demise.

"They say Mizura has stabilized for the time being." Kurenai told the group after Toph earthbended a pebble down the side of the crater out of boredom.

"Then it appears for the most part that everyone's alright." Genma finalized, his senbon clanking in his teeth.

"No..." Suki shook her head, "something's not right... not by a long shot."

"What do you mean?" asked Tatsu cocking an eyebrow.

"Well we're from 1,500 years in the past, so if it's always like this, help us understand," Sokka explained, "but Hokato, and Mizura... the way they're always thinking about the village."

"Yeah," Toph agree as she levitated another rock and tossed it downward, "Sumaru's the same way, its always the same thing: 'The village this...' 'The village that...'"

"What are three saying?" asked Kiba cocking his head to the left slightly, Akamaru mimicked.

"I think what Toph's trying to say," Sokka elaborated, "is that back then, we felt the same way when it came to _our_ homes, and even now we know how it feels when it comes to defending your home and your friends, we'd all do the same thing... we'd be willing to risk everything... even our own lives."

"Of course," nodded Shino, "why? Because that's the code of the village."

"Yeah..." agreed Kiba, "we'd all give our lives for the village."

"Right..." Tatsu muttered with a slight nod, followed by Kurenai and Genma.

"Yeah well," Toph exclaimed as she blew her bangs out of her eyes as she stood up, "This isn't the time to try and figure it out! Right now we've got to catch that thief and get the star back!"

"Yeah but..." Kurenai contemplated, "If they didn't get it back... at least they wouldn't have to suffer through that training."

"Kurenai Sensei does have a point," agreed Suki.

"Yeah..." Sokka scratched his chin in thought, "Without the star they can't train, which means that the village is put at risk... But if they _do_ train their _lives_ at ri- AAAHHH!" the water warrior just about ready to rip his hair out, "I give up! It's too confusing even for me! I don't know what to do!"

"Simple," said Genma, "we fulfill our mission, which is to protect the star. And that means that we have to get it back!"

"I agree," nodded Shino, "what these people choose to do with it after that is none of our affair."

"Yeah, you're right." Kiba agreed standing up.

"Okay," muttered Tatsu doing the same.

"Alright then let's go and kick some monkey feathered butt!" exclaimed a pumped Toph.

"Alright," Genma nodded, "Kurenai, I think it would be best if we stayed in the groups that were assigned earlier."

"Understood," Kurenai said before turning to Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino, "Kiba, Shino, Akamaru. The four of us are going to investigate the village leader one more time."

"What? Why Kurenai Sensei?" asked Kiba in confusion.

"Because something doesn't seem to fit right." she explained, "Why would that shinobi risk his life going into the Valley of Death? If he already has the star, why kidnap Sumaru. And besides, we've already confirmed that the one who took the star and the kidnapper were two different people, right Toph?"

"As far as I could tell." said earthbender replied.

"Yeah," Suki wondered, "but what does that mean?"

"It means..." replied Tatsu, "That this mission is more complicated than we first thought."

o~o

As the shinobi discussed what their next move would be, Lord Akahoshi himself watched with mild eagerness as the kunoichi who took the landed on the other side of the canyon, diminishing the Ninja art: Kujaku.

"As I expected, very impressive Ninja Art: Kujaku... Lady Natsuhi."

"Where is he?" asked the masked ninja, now dubbed Lady Natsuhi, as she glared at the leader through her mask, "What have you done with Sumaru?"

"First things first," Akahoshi held out his hand, "I'll take the star if you don't mind."

"Not until I get Sumaru," she said with finality.

"First the star."

"...No."

"Very well..." Akahoshi created the bird hand sign, "then I'll just have to take it from you."

Natsuhi laughed.

"What's so amusing?" Akahoshi snarled.

"That you actually believe that you're a match for me."

"I don't think you realize that after you left the village there were a select few of us who secretly continued our training."

"Ha ha! You think you finished the star training all on your own?"

"You're about to learn that I'm more than a match for you now Lady Natsuhi. Ninja Art: Kujaku." The pink-purple peacock feathers morphed behind Akahoshi's back, "Beast!" a badgerish creature appeared from the swirling chakra and roared at Natsuhi as if to dare her to fight back.

"The fool!" Natsuhi sneered, "He leaves me no choice. Ninja Art: Kujaku! Beast!" Natsuhi's own peacock feathers manifested behind her and her badger roared to life. But compared to hers, Akahoshi's might as well have been a mouse facing a huge lion! Her beast charged forward and easily swallowed up Akahoshi's beast and blowing the leader backward before retreating back toward its owner.

Akahoshi struggled to sit up after being hit so hard with Natsuhi's chakra. "Her power is great!" he hissed as he managed to return to his feet. "Yotaka! Shiso!" The two ninja that were always at the leaders side appeared next to him immediately, causing Natsuhi to gasp. "Go on!" he ordered.

"My Lord!" they both exclaimed before vanishing.

"What are you up to Akahoshi?" Natsuhi asked in suspicion.

This time Akahoshi laughed, "You'll just have to stay to find that out... Mi'lady."

o~o

"Huh!?" Toph suddenly gasped and immediately knelt downward.

"What is it Toph?" asked Genma.

"There's a fight going on near the canyon, Akahoshi's fighting someone!"

"The kunoichi?" asked Tatsu.

"It has to be!" exclaimed Sokka.

Before they could proceed to the top of the crater though Toph felt two more heartbeats coming towards them. "Who's there?" she asked taking out her metal chain.

Everyone else immediately tensed and drew a either a sword (Genma and Sokka), kunai (Tatsu) or fan (Suki). The intruders turned out to be Yokota and Shiso, as they landed themselves and kneeled in front of the Leaf ninja.

"Friends from the Leaf," Shiso addressed, "the kunoichi who stole the star has just now reappeared!"

"Lord Akahoshi is trying to delay her." Yokota added.

"Please come and help!"

"Alright!" Genma, "we're on our way. Come on you guys!"

Shiso and Yotaka continued to tell them what they knew already about the kunoichi as they dashed up the canyon in great haste.

"The kunoichi is powerful," Shiso informed, "and Lord Akahoshi is all alone."

"He won't be able to hold him long!" Yotaka added, feigned desperation.

"Just show us the way already!" Tatsu snapped, "After that we'll take care of it."

Though Tatsu didn't show it, for she dare not, she had been dying to get a good fight in ever since they first encounter the masked ninja. However, Genma and the rest of his team discreetly narrowed their eyes. Something about the star ninjas' tones didn't fit right. All four of them couldn't help but think that something was wrong... and that they were going to find out what it was the hard way.

o~o

Kiba poked his head out from where they were crouched underneath of the roof and sniffed the air in the room they were peeking into.

"There's no one here! Their scent is pretty faint so they must have left a while ago." he said as he rubbed his nose.

"Then it would seem to be an ideal opportunity to look around Sensei." Shino deducted as he glanced at the genjutsu kunoichi.

"Right." she nodded, making a hand sign, "I'll sneak inside and let you boys in from here. Until then stay put."

"Alright sensei." nodded Kiba with Akamaru yipping in agreement. Shino merely nodded. About a minute later, just as she promised, Kurenai opened the door to the room from the inside and waved them in. "All clear, there is no one here."

"Took you long enough sensei!" Kiba exclaimed as he and Shino climbed through the window, causing Kurenai to laugh slightly. The trio then crept around the corner of one of the few dark and eerie hallways of the Hoshikage building. Peeking around they could see anyone that around at all.

"It's so..." Kiba began.

"...Suspicious looking?" asked Shino.

"Exactly!"

Right as they hesitated to proceed down the rest of the hall, they stopped to see that a Hidden Star Village medic had exited one of the rooms in the hallway. The trio retreated back to their previous position and while Kurenai Planted her back and feet flat against the ceiling while holding the dog and bug genin in both of her arms. It was also sheer luck for them that the medic was looking at his clipboard the entire time; otherwise they very likely would have been spotted. After the medic paused to look behind him, he exited the hall into another room, muttering something about thinking he heard something.

Sighing with relief, Kurenai released her grip on her two genin and they landed back on the floor. Now they had a clue on where to start looking. Why was there a medic in that one room when there was a hospital very near the building too? As the trio looked through the shades, they saw that the only light the room had were a couple lit candles on pedestals.

"Why has it been set up like a hospital?" asked Kurenai asked herself as she continued to look for any details and clues the room could give them. "There's someone in there too?"

"Do you know who it is sensei?" asked Shino after he looked around one more time in case that medic came back.

Kiba decided to take a whiff inside as well, and the smell that he caught stopped him abruptly in his tracks. At the same time, Kurenai and Shino spotted a familiar lock of braided black hair on the bed.

"Sensei it's-"

"Sumaru!" they all exclaimed simultaneously.

o~o

Meanwhile, back at the canyon, Natsuhi's chakra beast roared at Akahoshi as if just daring him to try and fight it.

"Why did you force Sumaru and the others to resume the star training?" she asked incredulously, "The Third Hoshikage must have warned you how dangerous it is. Why would you do it?!"

Akahoshi gritted his teeth. He couldn't believe what lady Natsuhi was saying. How could she not see it? You yourself are the answer to that!" he snarled.

Natsuhi blinked, "What?"

"Look at your chakra!" Akahoshi continued, "It's incredible! Imagine an army of a hundred... or even ten ninja with powers like yours! The Five Great Hidden Villages combined would be no match for us! It's not too late Natsuhi! Together you and I could make the Hidden Star Village invincible!"

This time it was Natsuhi who couldn't believe what she was hearing! Shouldn't Akahoshi see the more harm it would cause than the good? She and her husband were the only ones who had survived the full star training, and even then, Hotarubi just recently died from the effects of it... it probably wouldn't be long until the same thing happened to her! Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as voices that had haunted her for almost all her life outside the village began whispering in her head once more.

_"Ugh...! It hurts... it hurts!"_

_"Why does my body feel like it's on fire?"_

_"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!"_

_"Ugh!"_

_"Help me! Please!"_

_"Enough... ENOUGH!" _Natsuhi's own voice shouted, _"All those young lives thrown away!"_

"That horror must never be repeated." Natsuhi said through her tears, "If you think I'm going to let you start that again!" With this proclamation, Natsuhi manifested her chakra wings and charged across the canyon at the leader like a tiger after a defenseless deer.

Akahoshi gasped in fear and turned to run, but didn't get far for he tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. Turning onto his back, he knew there was only one thing left that he could do. "Wait! Natsuhi! Remember I still have Sumaru!"

Natsuhi gasped and halted in her tracks. He was right, Akahoshi still held Sumaru captive. She had to save him before she even thought about banishing the star training.

Akahoshi sneered, "You're helpless aren't you? As long as I have your precious little Sumaru you can't do a thing!"

Natsuhi growled and struggled to keep her anger under control. She wanted so badly to throw Akahoshi into the Valley of Death and be done with it. But if she did that, she'd never know what happened to Sumaru.

o~o

On the other hand, Genma and the rest of his team were nearly to the area that Akahoshi and Natsuhi were fighting. Toph felt the huge tremors within the earth and knowing she couldn't stop, she focused on them with her feet as she ran.

"It feels like that kunoichi is closing in on Akahoshi!"

"Well let's go!" cried Sokka, "me and boomerang are about to close in on her!"

"Don't get cocky Sokka!" Genma warned, "Remember, this chick is too strong for a frontal attack!"

"Don't worry!" came the reply, "I've got an idea!"

"You do Sokka?" asked Suki and Tatsu at the same time. They both looked at each other in skepticism momentarily before turning their attention back to the Water Tribe Warrior.

"All we really need to do is neutralize that chakra of hers and then she'll be powerless. Suki, Toph, and I can take with a little earth-air-boomerang action while the rest of you can take care of the rest!"

'Well…' thought Genma, 'we have to be fast, and Sokka said that most of his plans in the past _have_ worked... There's really no time to argue.'

Genma finally nodded, "Alright, just be careful! Tatsu you'll be with me."

"Yeah whatever," came the reply.

"Don't worry about us Worrywart Sensei!" Toph called as the group finally reached the battleground.

"Toph make earth columns! A lot of them!" Sokka called.

"Earth columns? How's that going to- OH! I get it!" Toph sprang into the air and then slammed her feet and fists simultaneously downward, cause dozens of earth columns, big and small, shoot up and charge at Natsuhi in all directions.

"So... them again." Natsuhi muttered as she recognized the Leaf ninja attacking her. The one that had just launched the attack apparently had a strange Kekkei Genkai that allowed her to control the earth at will, without even using hand signs. Natsuhi wouldn't let this sway her though, forming the bird seal, her chakra beast rampaged as it took out each and every heart column that came even within ten feet of it.

Toph gritted her teeth in frustration. She hated, with a capital H, it when her earthbending wouldn't work against an opponent.

"Fine! Have it your way Falling Star!" she taunted as she took out her metal chain she bought at the weapons shop and threw it at Natsuhi.

Natsuhi couldn't help but chuckle a little at the seemingly stupid move the bender made. "Do you really think that simply throwing that chain would-?" She didn't get to finish her sentence as the chain's metal suddenly split into multiple sharp shards. She barely had time to form a barrier with her chakra before the shards rushed in for the kill.

'So this girl can control metal too?!' thought both Natsuhi and Akahoshi as the leader watched as the shards then returned to their chain form and returned to its owner.

Natsuhi didn't have much time to recover though before she was blasted back by a gust of wind. Turning to the direction it came from she saw the other girl that was with the squad holding two miniature battle fans in melee formation.

'Huh,' thought Suki, "guess I don't make a bad airbender after all.'

'So that girl can control air.' Natsuhi deducted. Suki attempted to throw a few more uncontrolled air blasts in the kunoichi's direction, which Natsuhi easily avoided. 'It seems this power is very new to her... now that I think about it, she wasn't using it the first time we met.'

'Thought so...' Tatsu observed when she saw that no attacks were working. 'That chakra is just too powerful to get through!'

As Natsuhi either destroyed earth columns or avoided air bullets, she noticed that something was right. 'Wait! Where's the third one: the boy.'

She noticed at the last second Sokka boomerang come streaming towards her. She ducked with a backflip believing that it had missed her, not realizing that the boomerang was sweeping back around to the back of her head, which it hit right at the nape of her neck. As she balked forward from the impact, a rock right in front of her exploded in smoke and Sokka punched her back straight in the jaw, sending her flying backward.

Genma's eyes widened at Sokka's genius plan. 'I see! It wasn't a true frontal attack at all! Toph and Suki were merely distractions. And he knew that if he threw his boomerang directly at her she would avoid, but since it's a boomerang he knew it come back and hit her in the back of her while her guard was down. Then when she was off balance, he jumped in and struck the final blow! Not bad at all Sokka!'

Genma wasn't the only one surprised that Sokka's plan worked. Akahoshi, Tatsu, Yokota, and Shiso were also gaud smacked, while Suki and Toph grinned ear to ear.

"H-he did it!" gasped Akahoshi. "Incredible!" His shock though was quickly replaced with a sinister grin.

Natsuhi's mask flew off her head as she tumbled toward the cliff's edge.

Sokka's eyes widened. "So it was a lady after all?!" he exclaimed in shock.

'Hmph,' Akahoshi thought haughtily, 'the Leaf brat actually did it! Plenty of time to find the star later! Now's my chance to finish Natsuhi once and for all!' He grinned wickedly as he eyed his prey as he got to his feet. However, he didn't see Sokka leaping toward the woman to see if she was alright. 'I can see that she will be of no help in fulfilling my ambitions for our village.' "Ninja Art: Kujaku: BEAST!"

Seeing (or feeling in Toph's case) what was happening the rest of the Leaf ninja immediately shouted at Sokka to get out of there.

"SNOOZLES!"

"Sokka! Look out!"

"SOKKA GET OUT OF THERE!"

"What the-AAAHHH!" Turning at the last moment, Sokka barely had time to register the giant chakra monster charging at him and Natsuhi before the ledge beneath them collapsed into the canyon.

"SOOOOOKKKKAAAA!" Suki screamed as she watched the warrior plummet into the canyon.

The only thing that Akahoshi had to say was a dire snicker.

o~o

At the training hall, Mizura suddenly noticed the bells on his staff jingle even though he didn't make any movement nor was there any wind. He gasped.

"What is it Mizura?" asked Hokato, who was drawing water from the well by the training hall, "Is something wrong?"

"...No it's nothing." he said, trying to sound convincing. But even he could tell just how hollow his voice was.

Mizura, along with most of the star genin, usually didn't believe in omens, but he couldn't help but feel that something terrible had just happened. 'Sokka.'

o~o

From inside the Hoshikage building where Kurenai, Shino, and Kiba were starting to carefully take the equipment off of Sumaru, he too felt something move in his gut, that something had happened.

"...Mother..."

o~o

All that Suki and Toph heard as the rushed to the cliff's edge was Sokka's scream as he and an unconscious Natsuhi disappeared into the canyon's poisonous depths.

o~o

AN: SO sorry for being gone so long. I was planning on posting this a couple of days ago, but Christmas was busy and I was away in Sand Francisco all of last weekend. Once again sorry for making you wait!

I know! I'm evil leaving a cliffhanger like that, but if you've watched all of the Naruto anime, you know what will happen in the next chapter. I'll try an have that one up before school starts again but no promises!

Sokka and Natsuhi: Read and Reply please!


	12. Episode 11: Hoshikage: The Buried Truth

Episode 11: Hoshikage: The Buried Truth

Suki, Toph, Genma, and even Tatsu rushed toward the edge of the jagged of the canyon. Toph immediately slammed her hand on the ground to listen for what she hoped would be the last thing she would hear of Sokka, his body breaking against the canyon bottom... which didn't come.

Suki on the other hand was absolutely furious. That was her boyfriend he hit for crying out loud!

"WHY'D YOU HIT SOKKA TOO!?" she shrieked a gush of wind whipping around her unintentionally.

"Suki!" Genma warned just in time as Akahoshi's eyes glowed purple and his chakra beast charged at _them! _However, still in pure rage, Suki batted it away with a twister she made with a twirl of her hips. This caused all four remaining Leaf Ninja to get into battle ready position.

However, they found that it wasn't necessary as Akahoshi's chakra quickly returned to his body. "It was an accident." he told them, "I had to strike when I had the chance... sadly your friend got in the way."

'He's telling the _truth!' _Toph thought incredulously, '... for once.'

"A tragic loss," the leader continued, "I've never seen anyone defeat the Ninja Art: Kujaku before... He will be missed."

The Leaf lowered their guard, Suki still furious was only refraining from fighting because Genma had a firm hand on her shoulder. But they soon grew confused at Akahoshi's next words.

"You have our thanks Leaf Village Shinobi." he addressed before turning around, "Your mission here it over now."

"But, we haven't recovered the star!" Tatsu protested with a perplexed tone.

"We'll handle that ourselves. Farewell my friends." he concluded as he stepped down the hillside.

The Leaf Ninja stood in shock. They now knew that there was something going on here... something that Lord Akahoshi didn't want them to find out about.

"Listen you three," Genma abruptly addressed them, "It doesn't matter what Akahoshi says right now. Our mission is still to retrieve the star, and that's what we're going to do."

"But... what about-" Suki was interrupted by her sensei again before she could continue.

"Not only that, but other mission is before we leave is to find Sokka and get him home. Understood?"

"Wait-" Suki stuttered, "you mean?"

"That's correct..." he turned to Toph, "I bet you noticed as well huh?"

"Yeah." came the response, "Sokka's probably still alive, I didn't feel him or that kunoichi's body hit the ground."

Suki sighed in relief. 'Thank goodness!' she then turned looked out passed the forest, she had no doubt that Sokka was out there. She wouldn't leave this village until she found him... dead or alive.

o~o

Hidden inside a cave, deep within the Bear Country's forest, a woman knelt down next to a boy on a makeshift bed. Besides that, there wasn't much else in the room, which was only illuminated by candlelight. There was a small wardrobe, a dresser, desk, and some cooking pots over a makeshift stove and other cooking utensils. Only things that were absolutely essential for survival

Though the boy in the bed had attack the woman not too long ago, she knew she couldn't just let an innocent person perish for no reason. Focusing her chakra, she placed her hand over the boys head. The boy groaned as his body soon became flooded with a purplish light. The woman removed her hand and the boy, teenage really, slowly opened his eyes. Looking around he was at first very confused for everything seemed very fuzzy. Finally a figure came into view: a woman's face and for a split second, he could've swore it was his mother's face he was looking into and not a strangers.

"AH!" he cried in surprise as his vision finally cleared. He scrambled out of bed only to be halted in his efforts with a prickling pain tore through his body.

"Rest easy now." the woman reassured, "I'm a friend." Her tone even sounded like his mother.

This made Sokka pause in his attempts to escape the bed. Suddenly, he remembered what had happened after the battle. That sneaky Akahoshi had blown him and this very lady off the cliff! After that though, he didn't remember anything, it just went black. "Now that I think of it, after I got blown off that cliff what happened? Somebody-somebody must have saved my life, was that you?"

"Yes," she replied.

(Flashback)

_"AAAAAHHHHH!" Sokka screamed as he tumbled into the poisonous canyon. This was it... he knew there was no way he would survive this! _

_'Sorry Suki... Sorry... Katara...' he thought just as he lost consciousness from the gas._

_What Sokka didn't notice though was that Natsuhi had regained consciousness again just in time to activate the wings of the Ninja Art: Kujaku, and knowing that this boy was innocent and had no true idea what was truly going on, dove after him as fast as she could. Shooting out her arm, she wrapped Sokka in a protective layer of star chakra, pulled him toward her. Finally, with her passenger secure in her arms, she soared out of the canyon back to her makeshift home in the forest. _

(Flashback)

"Hmmm..." Sokka hummed, "it's all kind of a big blank actually. But... I'm still alive... so thank you." he sat up straighter, knowing that he wasn't in any immediate danger at the moment, "I'm Sokka by the way, I'm a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village who's here to- well um..." his cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment as he began absentmindedly twiddling his fingers "I'm actually supposed to be protecting the star... from thieves like you- no offense!"

The woman laughed a little, but didn't seem to take much offense to the comment, "My name is Natsuhi."

"Natsuhi?" Sokka thought for a moment, why did that name sound so familiar? "Wait a minute, haven't I heard that name somewhere before?" The boomerang thrower racked his brain for the answer. "AH!" he exclaimed in realization.

(Flashback)

_"Take a look at that red one! It's pretty isn't it?" asked Suki, pointing to a glowing red star in the distance._

_"Eh," Sokka shrugged, "I've seen prettier."_

_"Natsuhiboshi..." Sumaru said, "never alone the star on high watches over me."_

(Flashback)

"Yeah that's right, Natsuhiboshi!" exclaimed Sokka, slamming his fist into his open palm, "That's what Sumaru called it! He said it was the name of the star that watches over him and protects him!"

Natsuhi gasped, "Really? Sumaru told you that?"

Sokka was now confused by this woman's reaction, "Yeah... Natsuhi do you know him or something?"

In response, Natsuhi reached into her flak jacket a showed Sokka a four pointed star charm attached to a cord around her neck, which shimmered, even though there was barely any light in room anyway. "...He is my son." she finally replied after a moment of hesitation.

"HUH?!" Sokka cried in shock, "Get out of here! Are you telling me you're Sumaru's _mother_?"

o~o

"WHAT!" the voiced vibrated through the Hoshikage building. "Sumaru is gone!?"

A medic bowed in fear to his village leader as they stared down at an empty bed. Shiso and Yokota were also present, along with two other medics.

"Forgive me my lord," the medic pled, "I was sure the sedatives would keep him unconscious for hours! I don't know what happened!"

Akahoshi ground his teeth in anger. He already knew exactly who was behind this! "The Leaf Ninja! I have no doubt that they had a hand in this!"

"So what now?" Shiso asked his boss, internally starting to panic, "They'll find out what we're doing! And then- how long do you think it'll be until the whole village knows?"

We'll just have to find them and get Sumaru back before it's too late!" Yokota declared.

"Stop panicking you two!" Akahoshi spat at them, "Once we have the star back we'll have no trouble silencing them permanently."

Yokota grinned in relief, "I guess you're right. We'll tell the people in the Hidden Leaf Village that they died while fulfilling their mission for us."

"And if we can convince Sumaru as well..." Shiso began.

Akahoshi nodded, "I've burned Natsuhi's chakra in my memory. Following the remnant trail of chakra will lead us straight to the star." he explained as his eyes began to glow a bright purple.

o~o

Meanwhile, back at the training hall, Genma, Suki, Toph, and Tatsu were explaining to the other star genin what had happened at the Valley of Death.

"What?" gasped Hokato, "Sokka went off the cliff?"

"Yeah..." Tatsu admitted, "along with the kunoichi who stole the star."

"Fortunately though," Toph interrupted, "the good news is, is that I didn't feel either of the two hit the Valley of Death's bottom."

"So you think they might've escaped the poison gas in the valley somehow?" Hokato asked hopefully to the Blind Bandit.

"Precisely," Genma nodded, "there is a chance."

"Well if that's the case..." Hokato thought for a moment, "it could be that they got out of the valley safely and into the forest! What are we waiting for? We've got to find them!"

However, unlike Hokato, the other star genin hesitated. Usually for something like this, they awaited orders from Lord Akahoshi. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they never did things on their own like this, especially with outsiders.

Hokato looked at her teammates in confusion, "Hey, what's wrong? Come on! Sokka's helping us and our village, have you forgotten?"

"No but-" one of the boy genin said, "we should wait for orders from Lord Akahoshi! Right?"

"...Yeah." a girl next to him agreed with a nod.

Now Hokato was very flabbergasted, and she stalked towards the entrance. "We don't have time to be waiting for orders! I'm going out there now!"

Before Hokato could even make it to the door, a bell jingle stopped her in her tracks, "I want to go with you!" Mizura said, struggling to sit up. The other star genin looked at Mizura in amazement, "If it's to help Sokka, I _have_ to go!"

"Mizura you can't!" Hokato said. There was no way Mizura could help anyone in his condition.

"There has to be some way I could be of use!" Mizura exclaimed in frustration.

"No... I'll go."

Hokato and the rest of the genin gasped as the entrance slid open, and no one other than Sumaru himself walked in, being supported by Kiba and Shino as Kurenai walked in behind them.

"Sumaru!" Mizura exclaimed, relieved to see that his friend was alive and alright.

"Then you're okay?" asked Hokato hopefully.

"We found him in your Hoshikage's residence," Kurenai explained gravely, "in a hospital bed, heavily sedated."

The other genin were in shock. "The Hoshikage's residence!" Hokato exclaimed in horror. "But why?"

"Simple," Shino said, "Toph was right about the shinobi who knocked you out and took Sumaru away. He wasn't a stranger from some other village."

(Flashback)

_The chakra strings suddenly shredded when the genin used up most of their chakra. One by one, they each hit the ground face first with a 'thud' with the 'thief' standing in front of them completely unharmed._

(Flashback End)

"Yeah!" Kiba exclaimed, "In fact, it was your village leader: Akahoshi! So the shinobi who attack you and the one who stole the star are two different people!"

"I believe that Tatsu, Genma Sensei, and the rest of squad 11 have already explained that Kiba." Shino replied bluntly. Kiba quickly blushed in embarrassment.

"Why... would Lord Akahoshi?" asked the same boy star genin.

"But why would he do that to us?" asked a girl star genin next to him.

"What does it all mean Sumaru?" asked Hokato. All eyes were now on the star genin prodigy.

"I only wish I knew Hokato." he replied, "But I'm beginning to suspect that Lord Akahoshi may be hiding something from us."

Suki, who had been quiet the entire time their were in there, had finally had enough of their native attitudes, "When will you all finally realize, that _this _man, Akahoshi, is using you?!"

All the star genin turned to the Kyoshi Warrior in shock. Could it be true, were they simply tools for Akahoshi to use and then dispose of when he's done with them? Mizura was even beginning to hyperventilate as Hokato looked at him with concern.

"Mizura's won't be the only one!" Suki continued, "If you keep on with this training, you'll all be sick... or worse!"

"No way!" the boy star genin muttered in disbelief.

"No it's a lie! No!" the same star genin girl tried to protest.

"No, you're wrong! Lord Akahoshi would never do something like that!" another girl protested.

Hokato seemed at a loss of words at this possible revelation.

"Wait!" Toph suddenly said, slamming a fist into her palm, "Maybe that kunoichi... the one who stole the star... and possibly has Snoozles as well... could explain what's going on!"

"Then it appears that our next step," Kurenai said, "is to locate that kunoichi and get some answers." The rest of the Leaf ninja nodded immediately.

"The forest in the Land of Bears is deep," Sumaru said, "you're never going to find your way through those woods on your own."

"Alright," Genma nodded as he stood up, "Then you're just going to have to show us the way."

Sumaru nodded before turning to Mizura, "Mizura, no it's alright, I'll do it."

"But-" the injured star ninja tried to protest.

"You have to rest and get your strength back. Don't worry, the time will come soon enough when we need your help."

Mizura looked at Sumaru in amazement. Could it really be that he was needed for something else? He finally nodded after a moment's hesitation.

o~o

Three shinobi walked across the valley of death on a rope that they were able to shoot across the canyon. Even though they were above it, they all wore facemasks, in case some of the gas from the valley wafted up to where they were. The three ninja removed their masks to reveal Akahoshi, Shiso, and Yokota. Now that Akahoshi had memorized Natsuhi's chakra signature, it would be child's play to find and track it to her location in the woods. Plus, there weren't any Leaf ninja interfering in their plans this time.

Concentrating his chakra toward his eyes, Akahoshi's irises flashed a violet color as he began to track for Natsuhi distinct chakra signature. A vision of Natsuhi's chakra path quickly appeared before his eyes, her winged Kujaku formed zooming toward the deeper part of the Land of Bear's forest. He grinned as he saw the winged form descend into the more northeastern part of the forest.

"Well then, any luck?" asked Shiso.

"Were you able to get a fix on the remnants of Natsuhi's chakra?" asked Yokota.

Akahoshi responded by pointing to the northeast and his two colleagues rushed toward the woods in that direction, Akahoshi himself following not too far behind.

o~o

"Oomph! Humph! Slurp!" was one of the few sounds that came from the hidden cave at the moment as Natsuhi stirred a bowl of soup while Sokka chowed down on it.

"Mmmmm! Delicious!" he commented in between bites, "There's nothing like a mom's home cooking! Even when it's in a cave!" Sokka finished the last remains of his bowl and remembered the few memories he had of his own mother cooking for him and Katara when she was still alive. He completely forgot how much he missed her homemade five-flavor soup, one of his and Katara's favorite meals when they used to live at the poles!

Natsuhi smiled at the compliment, "There's a little more if you want any."

"Heh heh!" Sokka laughed in delight as he held up his bowl, "Sure!"

After the two ate, Natsuhi told Sokka a little about herself, how she had grown up in the Star Village as a genin, along with a few of her missions when she had any, met her husband, and eventually how they had Sumaru. In return Sokka told her how he and his sister, Katara, had grown up 1,500 years ago in the Southern Water Tribe and about his many adventures with Avatar Aang and the rest of the Gaang during the Hundred Year War, before they had accidentally gotten themselves frozen in an iceberg and eventually thawed out by a couple Leaf Ninja a millennium and a half later, and given the opportunity to become ninja themselves. At first Natsuhi had a hard time believing Sokka's story, thinking that there was no way someone could've survived that long in an iceberg. Sokka confessed that and his friends were also pretty shocked ("actually, scratch that, terror stricken") themselves when they found out as well and still wondered how or what caused them to survive, but after showing Natsuhi his Water Tribe weapons and explaining to her what bending was, like how his sister was a waterbender, Toph was an to Earthbender, and Suki recently becoming an Airbender out of the blue, she had started to believe his story.

"Ok then, there's something I still don't understand." Sokka said a little while later, "Why did you swipe the star?"

"Well Sokka, as a matter of fact," Natsuhi began to explain, "this isn't the first time I've taken it. The first was ten years ago."

"What?" Sokka's eyes widened, "Ten years ago!" he remembered Hokato telling him and Suki about how Natsuhi and her husband had supposedly been killed in an incident ten years ago too. Could this be the story of what really happened?

"Even back then it was clear that Star Training was dangerous. Our young shinobi were falling ill or worse."

(Flashback. Non-italic is the current Natsuhi talking)

"My husband, Hotarubi and I were among the lucky ones who had survived the training."

_The star sat upon its pedestal peacefully in the training hall until the door to it suddenly opened to reveal Natsuhi and Hotarubi. They quickly approached the star at the center of the room and looked down on it not in awe, but with resentment. They still found it hard to believe that such a small looking object could cause so much pain and suffering._

"We decided we would steal the star and take it far away. So that it could no longer claim anymore of our brothers and sisters as victims."

_Hotarubi and Natsuhi nodded to each other in a silent agreement. Their decision was final._

_With Natsuhi carrying the star, the two of them leaped through the Land of Bear's treetops, but they didn't get far until their village's ANBU Black Ops caught them._

"An elite unit of tracking shinobi was quickly dispatched, and it wasn't long before they caught up with us."

_Seeing that they had been caught, the two star shinobi lowered to the ground and stood back to back of one another, ready to defend themselves as the ANBU surrounded them, their weapons drawn. But before any of the ANBU could even drawn their hand back to strike, a voice called out that stopped them._

_"Stop!"_

_The ANBU, along with Hotarubi and Natsuhi, turned toward the voice and saw the Third Hoshikage emerge from the woods, along with two other ANBU at his side._

_"It's the Third." Natsuhi said, as she held up the star. "Lord Hoshikage-"_

_Before Natsuhi could continue to try and explain their rash actions, the Third interrupted them, "Natsuhi and Hotarubi, your actions have been rash although not without reason. I have shared the same doubts and concerns, but as village leader I've had to weigh my decisions carefully. Now that is over. I will terminate the Star Training, but there will be some who disagree and they may try and reinstated it at some point in the future... And so I must ask you both... to leave the village and disappear perhaps forever." Natsuhi and Hotarubi couldn't believe their ears. Could their Hoshikage really be asking this of them they seemed to ask as they glanced at the other. "But keep watch, and if you ever see that the Star Training has been resumed, you must return and put a stop to it!"_

_"Lord Hoshikage..." Natsuhi looked down at the star. Could she really do this? Did she really have the courage and strength to leave her village and Sumaru behind forever? She looked at Hotarubi and saw nothing but determination in his eyes. He nodded his head before reaching inside the neck of his jacket and removing a necklace that he and Natsuhi always wore around their necks. It had the same star design that Natsuhi's had a four-pointed purple star._

_"For Sumaru." he told her as he held it out. After a moment of hesitation Natsuhi closed her eyes and reluctantly handed the star back to the Third Hoshikage as Hotarubi gave his necklace to him as well._

_"When our son asks of us, please my Lord." Natsuhi begged, "Please tell him we died."_

_"Yes." the Third nodded in agreement immediately, "I understand."_

"No one could ever know the truth about our leaving. Shortly thereafter, the Hoshikage discontinued the Star Training. He saw, as we did, the dangers of the potential benefits to our village weren't worth the damage being done to our people."

(Flashback End)

Sokka was shocked after hearing the story and also horrified to discover the true effects that Star Training had on people. "Toph said the same thing! Does this training really do that much damage?"

"Yes." Natsuhi looked at the ground, sadness filling her face, "It wasn't long after we left the village that my husband, Hotarubi, died from it's effects. The same thing could very well happen to me at anytime. There's no way of knowing."

"That's awful..." Sokka agreed somberly, before looking up with a determination filling his eyes. "We've got to get back to the village and tell, and tell Akahoshi that this crazy training has got to stop!"

Natsuhi wanted to tell the young warrior that she agreed with him completely, but she knew that Akahoshi wasn't going to listen to reason. "Akahoshi's dream of making the village strong is more important to him than the safety of its people." Sokka looked like he was about to protest, saying that anyone could be convinced with the right words, but Natsuhi continued, "To show you how little he cares about them, he took Sumaru hostage in order to trade his life to me for the star."

"What?" Sokka gasped, "So Toph was right! The shinobi with the mask and the poison gas was-!"

(Flashback)

_"You're not going anywhere!" shouted Tatsu as she and the others sprinted to stop him from kidnapping Sumaru. The 'thief' stopped at the very tip and turned to meet the pursuers._

_"Don't even think about!" shouted Sokka, preparing to throw his boomerang again._

_"Farewell." the 'thief' said simply as he jumping backwards into the canyon._

(Flashback End)

"So that guy was Akahoshi huh?" asked Sokka as he gritted his teeth in anger.

Suddenly Natsuhi gasped and whipped her head toward the other side of the cave, her eyes glowing violet briefly.

Outside, Akahoshi, Shiso, and Yokota had just landed outside the hideout. They had finally been found!

Natsuhi stood up, still looking at the wall.

"What?" asked Sokka, noticing Natsuhi's face, "What is it? Is there something wrong?"

"Akahoshi..." Natsuhi said the name with great disdain, "He's here with his henchmen."

o~o

Just as Natsuhi had said, the trio of Star Ninja emerged from the forest and leaped in front of the rock formation that the trail lead to.

"So this is it?" asked Shiso.

"Are you able to sense where she's hidden the star?" asked Yokota.

Akahoshi's eyes flashed purple once again and a vision crept into his eyesight. He saw Natsuhi remove the top of the rock structure and place the star on top of Hotarubi's corpse and sealing the casket before leaping out and then resealing the entrance as she exited. He knew exactly how to get in and get the star.

Akahoshi grinned as the vision quickly ended. He pointed toward the rock structure. "The star is right there. But the entrance is sealed by that boulder."

Shiso looked at the boulder covering the exit, "So what are we supposed to do to get rid of that?" he asked.

"We could try using paper bombs and blow it up little by little." suggested Yokota.

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT!" a voice shouted from behind them. Akahoshi barely had time to turn around and then quickly duck as familiar looking boomerang barely missed hitting him. He then remembered that the object was a boomerang and that it would come back around and hit him again, which he was right as the boomerang quickly flew back around toward him. This time Akahoshi managed to jump over it in time. Following the weapon's trail, the trio were surprised and shocked to see that Sokka was alive and well as he easily snatched the boomerang from the air from where he was kneeling. The warrior glared at Akahoshi with disdain not only for his thoughts on the Star Training, but also because he had the nerve to try and blast him along with Natsuhi off the Valley of Death's cliff.

"What the?!" Shiso gasped in surprise at Sokka's sudden appearance.

"I thought we lost this brat in the Valley of Death!" Yokota exclaimed in equal shock.

"You'd be surprised how hard it is to get rid of me!" Sokka retorted, grasping his machete and club in his hands in a melee position.

"Ha!" Akahoshi scoffed, "Get back you two leave him to me!" with his two henchmen retreating behind him, smirking Akahoshi brought his hands together. "Now then, I guess I'll just have to finish what I began. Ninja Art: Kujaku! Beast!" The bander monster manifested from Akahoshi's back and immediately charged at the warrior.

However, Sokka had been observing both Natsuhi and the other Star Ninja's Kujaku actions and attacks for a while now and he came to the conclusion that when it was in beast form, it couldn't corner well, nor could anymore form once one had, unless you were at Natsuhi's level already. It was obvious that the weakness to this jutsu was the user itself. That fact had proven itself when he had hammered Natsuhi with a good punch earlier. So all he had to do was wait until the last minute and then charge at Akahoshi. Also, he wondered, was it possible that this attack could also accidentally hit the user if not used correctly? Well, he was about to find out.

'No yet...' Sokka thought as the beast raged closer, 'Not yet... NOW!' at the moment his mind calculated it, Sokka dove directly to the side, out of the rampaging beast's way. Just as he predicted, the beast slid across the ground for a short distance before it had a chance to change direction, glaring at Sokka in irritation. The warrior took the time he gained from the beast's disorientation to charge straight at Akahoshi himself, glancing behind him only for moment to make sure that the beast was following him.

'What are you up to?' Akahoshi thought as he watched the water tribe warrior sprinting at him. When Sokka was within attack range, he leapt up and with a great battle cry held his club behind him to strike at Akahoshi. Akahoshi, thinking Sokka was attempting to pull off the same trick he did with Natsuhi, preparing to teleport out of the way, only to be caught by surprise when Sokka actually leapt _over_ him, and then quickly dodging to the side _again_ out of sight, as Akahoshi looked in front of him just in time to see his own beast charging him. Seeing what the boy was playing at he held hand out and immediately dispersed the chakra beast right before it made contact with him.

"What?!" Sokka cried, seeing that his plan semi-failed. He had proven that the chakra beast _is_ capable of attacking it own user, but only if the user doesn't turn it off in time.

Akahoshi sneered as Sokka gawked at his failed attempts. "I admire what you were trying to do there! However, that's the last trick you will be pulling in this lifetime!" He turned back toward the warrior, and since he was still in shock didn't react fast enough to try and dodge. Fortunately, the universe decided to be kind to him as another chakra beast quickly intercepted Akahoshi's and protected him from impact.

Akahoshi raised his hands in front of his face to block the small amount of debris that was made from the impact before looking behind Sokka after regaining composure. "What the heck?!" Standing behind Sokka was Natsuhi, forming her own hand sign for her Kujaku. "So Natsuhi," he narrowed his eyes in hatred at the woman, "you're still alive as well I see."

"Akahoshi," Natsuhi addressed him in a stern tone, "I ask you one more time to reconsider. Stop the Star Training once and for all and let the young people go and I will leave you and the village in peace forever!"

Akahoshi only sneered manically, "Heh! Thank you but no!" he received as gasp of surprise from both Sokka and Natsuhi, "You're just as blind as that stubborn old man: the Third Hoshikage! He wouldn't listen to reason either! He refused to understand that the Star Training was essential to keep our village strong and prosperous!"

Akahoshi remembered when Shiso and Yokota had approached the Hoshikage to try and convince him to reinstate the Star Training, but just like the Third had promised Natsuhi and Hotarubi he refused to hear any of Akahoshi's reasons to have put into practice again.

(Flashback)

_"No never!" The Third Hoshikage exclaimed, "It's too dangerous! As long as I'm Hoshikage that training will never be used again! This matter is finished, leave me now!"_

_Shiso and Yokota at the time had been very hesitant and scared to try and perform such a rash action if the Hoshikage didn't comply. Akahoshi feigned a look of frustration and disappointment before it was instantaneously replaced with a sick grin a monster who only had one purpose: death._

_Before the Hoshikage could register what was happening three kunai were plunged into him, from the front and both of his sides._

_"This is madness Akahoshi," he muttered as his vision started to waver from the fatal blows, "You've lost your mind!"_

_"It is you who have lost your mind you old fool!" Akahoshi snarled, as he plunged the kunai deeper into the older man's chest, "Now go and sleep with you ancestors. Your journey is at an end! Leave it to the next generation to give this village the power to rival the Five Great Hidden Villages!" _

_Akahoshi gave an insane laugh as the Hoshikage drew one last pained breath before he fell to the floor... dead!_

_"Are you sure..." Shiso asked hesitantly, "this was necessary?"_

_"It-it had to be done for the sake of the village, right?" Yokota asked in the same hesitance._

_Akahoshi sneered, "Had to be done, yes!" he replied quickly, "Now we'll resume the Star Training and it will lead us to GLORY!" he let out an evil and sinister guffaw as he stared done in accomplishment at the Hoshikage's corpse._

(Flashback End)

Natsuhi and Sokka couldn't believe their ears! They had always known that Akahoshi was a bad man, but that act had been pure evil! Sokka felt a shiver run down his spine as he remembered how Fire Lord Ozai used to be in the past. He couldn't help but feel as if he was staring at the very same monster that threatened to burn down the Earth Kingdom.

"You monster!" Sokka shouted, balling his fists, wanting so badly to punch the lights out of the man in front of him, "You've got this whole village believing in you and you don't give a damn if they live or die! Mizura's in the hospital because of you, he may not even survive!"

Akahoshi only glared evilly at the duo in response, "Greatness not be achieved without some sacrifice! It's for the village, a true shinobi understands that!"

"'For the village' my foot!" Sokka spat, "This isn't for the village it's for you and only you! For you and some crazy dream of glory you've got inside your head!" Sokka then attempted to charge at the village leader out of fury, but was stopped when Natsuhi stepped in front of him.

"It's not your fight, stay out of it!" she ordered, "This is _our_ village's affair!"

"No way!" Sokka shouted in a defiance that even caused Natsuhi to pause, "Look, call me old fashioned, but back in my day if I see someone either in or outside my village, town, or even _nation_ in trouble, we didn't hesitate to help, even if they didn't ask for it and we knew that it was the right thing to do! Isn't it natural for people to just step in and help those in need?! If that's not how things work anymore in this world, then all of you are just horrible human beings!"

Natsuhi gasped. She then thought back on how she and Hotarubi had acted of their own would to steal the star the first time to try and help their village. No one had asked them to do it, they were simply doing what they thought was right! And right Sokka _was_ right!

Finally after pausing for a moment she exhaled, "You're right Sokka. We'll fight together, just don't get in the way!"

"You got it!"

Natsuhi's chakra quickly morphed into her chakra beast and roared at Akahoshi in challenge and superiority, almost as if it knew that it had already beat Akahoshi once already and was ready to beat it again.

"Yotaka! Shiso!" Akahoshi called to his two colleagues. The two men in response activated their own Ninja Art: Kujaku right as Akahoshi did the same. His chakra beast roared to life and charged at the other two before digging its fangs into their chakra and swallowing it, causing it to grow in size and the two men to fall to the ground unconscious.

"What?! His chakra just swallowed up both of theirs!" Sokka exclaimed in shock.

Now Akahoshi's chakra beast was the same size, if not slightly bigger than Natsuhi's as it roared in challenge at it's opponent.

Akahoshi laughed, "My chakra beast has had a good meal. Things will go differently this time."

"Not if we can help it!" Natsuhi cried back.

"Be careful Natsuhi..." Sokka whispered, suddenly very nervous as he drew out with sword, which unknowingly to any of them was glowing a slight silvery color.

Unknown to any of them though, the rest of the Hidden Star genin and Leaf Ninja were on their way to assist as well, and would arrive at the field momentarily.

o~o

AN: YES! I was able to keep my promise after all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I don't think I'll be able to get another chapter up before school starts just so you know. I'll try but it probably won't happen.

Natsuhi and Sokka: Read and Reply please!


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